Page:Pieces People Ask For.djvu/212

94 Then the good-wife turned to her labor,
 * Humming a simple song,

And thought of her husband, working hard
 * At the sluices all day long;

And set the turf a-blazing,
 * And brought the coarse black bread,

That he might find a fire at night,
 * And find the table spread.

And Peter left the brother,
 * With whom all day he had played,

And the sister who had watched their sports
 * In the willow's tender shade,

And told them they'd see him back before
 * They saw a star in sight,

Though he wouldn't be afraid to go
 * In the very darkest night!

For he was a brave, bright fellow,
 * With eye and conscience clear;

He could do whatever a boy might do,
 * And he had not learned to fear.

Why, he wouldn't have robbed a bird's nest,
 * Nor brought a stork to harm,

Though never a law in Holland
 * Had stood to stay his arm!

And now, with his face all glowing,
 * And eyes as bright as the day

With the thoughts of his pleasant errand,
 * He trudged along the way;

And soon his joyous prattle
 * Made glad a lonesome place—

Alas! if only the blind old man
 * Could have seen that happy face!

Yet he somehow caught the brightness
 * Which his voice and presence lent,

And he felt the sunshine come and go
 * As Peter came and went.

And now, as the day was sinking,
 * And the winds began to rise,

The mother looked from her door again?
 * Shading her anxious eyes,