THE MAN IN THE WILDERNESS.
"The man in the wilderness, he asked me
How many strawberries grew in the sea:
I answered him, as I thought good,
As many red herrings as grew in the wood."
Of the face of the world they have found
it out
By what they must fetch and do;
Of the heart of the world they dispute and
doubt,
And yet it is just as true.
Your fish is wholesome, and live, and clean,
And my little fruit is fair;
Though the earth's good Maker might never
mean
That both should be everywhere.
And all for the want of a thought like this,
It comes, and it can but be,
That many a soul 's in the wilderness,
And many adrift at sea.