Page:The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter.djvu/92



knocks at the Geraldine's door to-night In the black storm and the rain? With the thunder crash and the shrieking wind Comes the moan of a creature's pain.

And once they knocked, yet never a stir To show that the Geraldine knew; And twice they knocked, yet never a bolt The listening Geraldine drew.

And thrice they knocked ere he moved his chair, And said, “Whoever it be, I dare not open the door to-night For a fear that has come to me.”

Three times he rises from out his chair, And three times he sits him down. “Now what makes faint this heart of mine?” He says with a growing frown.

“Now what has made me a coward to-night. Who never knew fear before? But I swear the hand of a little child Keeps pulling me from the door.”

The Geraldine rose from his chair at last And opened the door full wide; “Whoever is out in the storm,” said he, “May in God's name come inside!”