Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Albert BigelowPaine

1432 The Little Child

A SIMPLE-HEARTED child was He,

And He was nothing more;

In summer days, like you and me,

He played about the door,

Or gathered, where the father toiled.

The shavings from the floor.

Sometimes He lay upon the grass,

The same as you and I,

And saw the hawks above Him pass

Like specks against the sky;

Or, clinging to the gate, He watched

The stranger passing by.

A simple child, and yet, I think,

The bird-folk must have known,

The sparrow and the bobolink,

And claimed Him for their own,—

They gathered round Him fearlessly

When He was all alone.

The lark, the linnet, and the dove,

The chaffinch and the wren,

They must have known His watchful love

And given their worship then;

They must have known and glorified

The child who died for men.

And when the sun at break of day

Crept in upon His hair,

I think it must have left a ray

Of unseen glory there,

A kiss of love on that little brow

For the thorns that it must wear.