AT THE STAGE DOOR.
BY JAMES CLARENCE HARVEY.
The curtain had fallen, the lights were dim,
The rain came down with a steady pour;
A white-haired man with a kindly face,
Peered through the panes of the old stage door.
"I'm getting too old to be drenched like that"
He muttered and turning met face to face,
The woman whose genius, an hour before,
Like a mighty power had filled the place.
"Yes, much too old," with a smile, she said,
And she laid her hand on his silver hair;
"You shall ride with me to your home to-night,
For that is my carriage standing there."
The old door-tender stood, doffing his hat
And holding the door, but she would not stir,
Though he said it was not for the "likes of him
To ride in a kerridge with such as her."
"Come, put out your lights," she said to him,
"I've something important I wish to say,
And I can't stand here in the draught you know—
I can tell you much better while on the way."
So into the carriage the old man crept,
Thanking her gratefully, o'er and o'er,
Till she bade him listen while she would tell
A story, concerning that old stage door.
"It was raining in torrents, ten years ago
This very night, and a friendless child
Stood, shivering there, by that old stage door,
Dreading her walk in a night so wild.
She was only one of the 'extra' girls,
But you gave her a nickle to take the car,
And said 'Heaven bless ye, my little one,
Ye can pay me back ef ye ever star.'
"So you cast your bread on the waters then,
And I pay you back, as my heart demands,
And we're even now—no! not quite," she said,
As she emptied her purse in his trembling hands.
"And if ever you're needy and want a friend,
You know where to come, for your little mite
Put hope in my heart and made me strive
To gain the success you have seen to-night."
Then the carriage stopped, at the old man's door,
And the gas-light shone on him, standing there:
And he stepped to the curb, as she rolled away,
While his thin lips murmured a fervent prayer.
He looked at the silver and bills and gold,
And he said: "She gives all this to me?
My bread has come back a thousandfold,
God bless her! God bless all such as she!"