II.—LITTLE AT FIRST, BUT GREAT AT LAST
1. A traveler through a dusty road,
Strewed[12] acorns on the lea,[13]
And one took root, and sprouted up,
And grew into a tree.
Love sought its shade at evening time,
To breathe its early vows,
And Age was pleased, in heat of noon,
To bask[14] beneath its boughs.
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs;
The birds sweet music bore;
It stood a glory in its place—
A blessing evermore.
2. 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 at the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
But judged that Toil might drink.
He passed again—and lo! the well,
By summers never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues,
And saved a life beside.
3. A dreamer dropped a random[15] thought;
’Twas old, and yet ’twas new—
A simple fancy of the brain,
But strong in being true:
It shone upon a genial[16] mind,
And lo! its light became
A lamp of life, a beacon[17] ray,
A monitory[18] flame.
The thought was small—its issue[19] great;
A watch-fire on the hill,
It sheds its radiance[20] far adown,
And cheers the valley still!
4. A nameless man, amid a crowd
That thronged the daily mart,[21]
Let fall a word of hope and love,
Unstudied, from the heart;
A whisper on the tumult thrown—
A transitory[22] breath—
It raised a brother from the dust;
It saved a soul from death.
Oh germ! oh fount! oh word of love!
Oh thought at random cast!
Ye were but little at the first,
But mighty at the last!
[12] Strewed, sowed, scattered.
[13] Lea, open land, meadow land.
[14] Bask, repose, recline.
[15] Ranˊ-dom, at hazard; without aim or purpose.
[16] Geˊ-ni-al, sympathetic; adapted to receive it.
[17] Beaˊ-con, guiding, warning against danger.
[18] Monˊ-i-to-ry, admonishing, warning.
[19] Isˊ-sue (ish’-shu), result, consequence.
[20] Raˊ-di-ance, light, brightness.
[21] Mart, a place of sale or traffic.
[22] Transˊ-i-to-ry, fleeting, quickly passing away.