Copyright, 1908, by Duffield and Co.
SPRING MUSIC
I HEARD a violin one day—
It sounded like the Spring;
Like woolly lambs at play,
Like baby birds that sing
In snatches, when they're learning how.
I know the one who played
Could see pink blossoms on a bough,
Where children came beneath its shade
To make white clover in a crown.
Then while they laughed there in the grass,
Soft petals fluttered down;
They hushed and saw some angels pass,
With friendly eyes that smile—
The kind that I have often seen
When mother sings awhile,
Just as I go to sleep and dream.
I held my breath and then there rose
The last sweet note so high.
I felt as when the sunshine goes—
I could not help but cry.
A COMPROMISE
WHEN I have done a Something Wrong,
I feel ashamed to kneel and pray.
But then the dark-time lasts so long,
And God seems—oh, so far away!—
That when the lights are out awhile,
I clamber out of bed once more
And pour my pennies in a pile.
. . . I listen at the door,
And then I get upon my knees,
And whisper just for God to hear,
To ask him, oh, just once more, please,
Will he forgive and come back near,
If I will make a promise quick
To give my pennies to the sick?