"You say it first," said one of the children to her little hostess, "because it is your birthday."
At a nod from her mother, the little girl said the Selkirk grace:—
"Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit."
Then another small girl said her grace, which was Herrick's:—
"Here a little child I stand,
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be,
Here I lift them up to Thee,
For a benison to fall
On our meat and on us all
Amen."
The next little girl said Stevenson's:—
"It is very nice to think
The world is full of meat and drink,
And little children saying grace
In every Christian kind of place."
The succeeding little guests said the dear and familiar "blessing" of so many children:—
"For what we are about to receive, O Lord, make us truly thankful."
My little friend into whose life so grievous a sorrow had come was the last to say her grace. It was the poem of Miss Josephine Preston Peabody entitled "Before Meat:—