Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/293

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��GROWLER GRIMES DREAM. 287

Look thou ! Upon a couch of pain

A baby weak and helpless lies ; Can you give back the rosy life

That seems just nearing paradise ? Behold ! Two angels bear the child

Just near enough for God to kiss, Then give it back to mother-arms

To keep a while. Could you do this?

When sore temptation trod the verge,

And you came very near to fall, Yet bounded back, you thought, O man,

Your staunch resolve had done it all. See ! Yonder in the farm-house small,

From which goes up a quiv ring cry, A gray-haired man lifts up his hands :

Thou, Lord, canst keep the boy not I.

Oh, Growler Grim, walk softly now,

Draw nearer with unshodden feet, Lest step of thine may never fall

Along that golden Upper Street ! Give back to Him His gifts to thee

Through these, His poor, lest haply He, In that bright harvesting to come,

Alas ! may not remember thee !&quot;

��When Growler Grim, out in the night, Sought humble homes of want and care,

With softened speech and open purse, How all the working-folks did stare !

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