A STUDY OF HOME
I had thought before hearing Mrs. Miller read "The Greatest Battle that Ever was Fought" that I had caught all the subtle meanings of it, but after her reading that great tribute to womanhood I knew that I had never dreamed the half of its inner meaning:
"The greatest battle that ever was fought—-
Shall I tell you where and when?
On the maps of the world you will find it not:
It was fought by the Mothers of Men.
"Not with cannon or battle shot,
With sword or nobler pen;
Not with eloquent word or thought
From the wonderful minds of men;
"But deep in a walled up woman's heart;
A woman that would not yield;
But bravely and patiently bore her part;
Lo! there is that battlefield.
"No marshaling troops, no bivouac song,
No banner to gleam and wave;
But Oh these battles they last so long—From
babyhood to the grave!
"But faithful still as a bridge of stars
She fights in her walled up town;
Fights on, and on, in the endless wars;
Then silent, unseen goes down I
"Ho! ye with banners and battle shot,
With soldiers to shout and praise,
I tell you the kingliest victories fought
Are fought in these silent ways."
Then, as if to give us another illustration of her great poet husband's home love, she read for us "Juanita":
"You will come, my bird, Bonita?
Come, for I by steep and stone,
Have built such nest, for you, Juanita,
As not eagle bird hath known.
. . . . . . . . .
All is finished! Roads of flowers
Wait your loyal little feet.
All completed? Nay, the hours
Till you come are incomplete!"
Who that hath the blessing of little children will not understand this waiting, yearning love of Miller for his ten-year-old girl, who was at that time in New York with her mother waiting until "The Heights" should be finished? Who does not understand how incomplete the hours were until she came?
"You will come, my dearest, truest?
Come, my sovereign queen of ten:
My blue sky will then be bluest;
My white rose be whitest then."