Page:Tributes to Helen Bell, Woman's Progress, April 1895.djvu/10

Rh happy, for she left this busy world without one sign of decay in mind or body. The work appointed was finished. The pulse ceased its beating and life stood still. The eyes closed in sleep, but in immortal youth she lives a fuller life and still calls, to those that have ears to hear, from the unseen world. Brother! Come up higher! Sister! Come up higher!

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A WORD OF HELEN BELL.

In this little paper it is not my intention to speak of our president's work in the Browning Society or elsewhere, but very simply and briefly give one woman's impressions of another in some of the more open relations of life, premising with a few verses which Lowell might have written expressly for Helen Bell.

Not as all other women are

Is she that to my soul is dear;

Her glorious fancies come from far,

Beneath the silver evening star,

And yet her heart is ever near.

Great feelings hath she of her own,

Which lesser souls may never know;

God giveth them to her alone,

And sweet they are as any tone

Wherewith the wind may choose to blow.

Yet in herself she dwelleth not,

Although no home were half so fair;

No simplest duty is forgot,

Life hath no dim and lowly spot

That doth not in her sunshine share.

She doeth little kindnesses,

Which most leave undone or despise;

For naught that sets one heart at ease,

And giveth happiness or peace,

Is low-esteemed in her eyes.

She hath no scorn of common things,

And, though she seem of other birth,

Round us her heart entwines and clings,

And patiently she folds her wings

To tread the humble paths of earth.