Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/Sunshine and Shower
Sunshine and Shower.
Two children stood at their father's gate, Two girls with golden hair;And their eyes were bright, and their voices glad, Because the morn was fair.For they said, "We will take that long, long walk To the hawthorn copse to-day,And gather great bunches of lovely flowers From off the scented May;And oh! we shall be so happy there, 'Twill be sorrow to come away!"
As the children spoke, a little cloud Passed slowly across the sky;And one looked up in her sister's face With a tear-drop in her eye;But the other said, "Oh, heed it not! 'Tis far too fair to rain;That little cloud may search the sky For other clouds in vain."And soon the children's voices rose In merriment again.
But ere the morning hours had waned The sky had changed its hue,And that one cloud had chased away The whole great heaven of blue.The rain fell down in heavy drops, And wind began to blow,And the children, in their nice warm room, Went fretting to and fro;For they said, "When we have aught in store, It always happens so!"
Now these two fairhaired sisters Had a brother out at sea;A little midshipman, aboard The gallant "VictoryAnd on that self-same morning, When they stood beside the gate,His ship was wrecked! and on a raft He stood all desolate,With the other sailors round him, Prepared to meet their fate.
Beyond, they saw the cool green land— The land with her waving trees,And her little brooks that rise and fall Like butterflies to the breeze;But above them the burning noontide sun With searching stillness shone;Their throats were parched with bitter thirst, And they knelt down one by one,And prayed to God for a drop of rain And a gale to waft them on.
And then that little cloud was sent, That shower in mercy given,And as a bird before the breeze, Their bark was landward driven.And some few mornings after, When the children met once more,And their brother told the story, They knew it was the hourWhen they had wished for sunshine, And God had sent the shower.