Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/87

Rh The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,

The birds sweet music bore—

It stood a glory in its place,

A blessing evermore.

A little spring had lost its way

Amid the grass and fern;

A passing stranger scooped a well

Where weary men might turn.

He walled it in, and hung with care

A ladle on the brink;

He thought not of the deed he did,

But judged that Toil might drink.

He passed again; and lo! the well,

By summer never dried,

Had cooled ten thousand parchéd tongues,

And saved a life beside.

A nameless man, amid the crowd

That thronged the daily mart,

Let fall a word of hope and love,

Unstudied from the heart,

A whisper on the tumult thrown,

A transitory breath,

It raised a brother from the dust,

It saved a soul from death.

O germ! O fount! O word of love!

O thought at random cast!

Ye were but little at the first,

But mighty at the last.

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