Page:Poems Dorr.djvu/203

In the glow of the fire-light playing,
 A tiny, blithesome pair,
With the music of their laughter
 Fill all the tranquil air—
A rosy, brown-eyed lassie,
 A boy serenely fair.

A woman sits in the shadow
 Watching the children twain,
With a joy so deep and tender
 It is near akin to pain,
And a smile and tear blend softly—
 Sunshine and April rain!

Her heart keeps time to the rhythm
 Of love's unuttered prayer,
As, with still hands lightly folded,
 She listens, unaware,
Through all the children's laughter,
 For a footfall on the stair.

I know the woman who sits there;
 Time hath been kind to her,
And the years have brought her treasures
 Of frankincense and myrrh
Richer, perhaps, and rarer,
 Than Life's young roses were.

But I doubt if ever her spirit
 Hath known, or yet shall know,
The bliss of a happier hour,
 As the swift years come and go,
Than this in the shadowy chamber
 Lit by the hearth-fire's glow!