However, more than for anything else, perhaps, Phoebe Cary will be remembered for her lyric, One Sweetly Solemn Thought. Not long before she died she heard a story of something which this little poem had accomplished, which made her very happy. A gentleman going to China was entrusted with a package for an American boy in China. Arriving at his destination, he failed to find the boy, but was told that he might discover him in a certain gambling house. As he sat and waited, he watched with disgust and loathing the dreadful scenes going on about him. At a table near him sat a young boy and a man of perhaps forty, drinking and playing cards; they were swearing horribly and using the vilest language.
At length, while the older man shuffled and dealt the cards, the boy leaned back in his chair and half unconsciously began to hum, finally singing under his breath Phoebe Cary's hymn, One Sweetly Solemn Thought.
"Where did you learn that hymn?" cried the older gambler abruptly.
"At Sunday School at home," replied the boy, surprised.
The older man threw the cards on the floor. "Come, Harry," he said, "let's get out of this place. I am ashamed that I ever brought you here, and I shall do my best to keep you from entering such a place again."
Together the two passed from the gambling house, and the man who watched them learned later that they were both true to their resolution to live a different life.
NEARER HOME
By PHOEBE CARY
One sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me o'er and o'er;
I am nearer home to-day
Than I ever have been before;
Nearer my Father's house,
Where the many mansions be;
Nearer the great white throne,
Nearer the crystal sea;