Crept close up to the lecturer’s desk and said: “Does ’ou love me?”
Poor Joe jest turned a fiery red, and tried to snatch the child;
But Miss Harper she leaned over and looked at him and smiled;
Then dropping all her papers, in the twinkling of an eye,
She clasped the little one, who gave a wondering, happy cry,
And laid her little curly head right down upon her breast,
With both arms clinging round her neck, as if she’d found her rest!
It’s as fresh now as a picter, though it happened months ago,
How she held that little baby girl a whispering soft and low;
Her eyes as bright and smiles a-coming and a-going,