HER ANSWER.
49
“A smile is better than a tear you say,
Believe me, friends, it is not always so,
As I can prove. ’Twas but the other day
I stood with one whose heart was crushed with woe,
Beside the coffin where her treasure lay,
So great, so deep her grief, tears would not flow.
“Upon my breast she laid her aching head,
I tried to comfort her, but words were vain,
But as my tears fell fast above the dead
Her tears burst forth in showers like the rain;
Then when her grief was spent, she smiled and said:
‘Dear friend, those tears have eased my heart’s dull pain.’”
