Page:Pieces People Ask For.djvu/53

Rh What doth the poor man's son inherit?
 * A patience learned by being poor;

Courage, if sorrow come, to bear it;
 * A fellow-feeling that is sure
 * To make the outcast bless his door,—

A heritage, it seems to me, A king might wish to hold in fee.

O rich man's son! there is a toil,
 * That with all others level stands:

Large charity doth never soil,
 * But only whiten, soft white hands;
 * This is the best crop from thy lands,—

A heritage, it seems to me, Worth being rich to hold in fee.

O poor man's son! scorn not thy state:
 * There is worse weariness than thine,

In merely being rich and great;
 * Toil only gives the soul to shine,
 * And makes rest fragrant and benign,—

A heritage, it seems to me, Worth being poor to hold in fee.

Both, heirs to some six feet of sod,
 * Are equal in the earth at last;

Both, children of the same dear God,
 * Prove title to your heirship vast
 * By record to a well-filled past,

A heritage, it seems to me, Well worth a life to hold in fee.

James Russell Lowell.

CASABIANCA (Colored).

darky stood in the 'backer patch,
 * Whence all the rest had fled;

While the mule-heels, clods, and green worms flew
 * A-whizzing round his head.

Savory, stout, and black he stood,
 * As born to work a farm,

While gaping mouth and bulging eyes
 * Betokened his alarm.