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These Little Ones
- ‘WHAT of the garden I gave?’
- God said to me;
- ‘Hast thou been diligent to foster and save
- The life of flower and tree?
- How have the roses thriven,
- The lilies I have given
- The pretty scented miracles that spring
- And summer come to bring?’
- ‘My garden is fair and dear,’
- I said to God;
- ‘From thorns and nettles I have kept it clear,
- Green‐trimmed its sod.
- The rose is red and bright,
- The lily a live delight;
- I have not lost a flower of all the flowers
- That blessed my hours.’
- ‘What of the child I gave?’
- God said to me;
- ‘The little little one I died to save
- And gave in trust to thee?
- How have the flowers grown
- That in its soul were sown,
- The lovely living miracles of youth
- And hope and joy and truth?’
- ‘The child’s face is all white,’
- I said to God;
- “It cries for cold and hunger in the night;
- Its little feet have trod
- The pavement muddy and cold,
- It has no flowers to hold,
- And in its soul the flowers you set are dead.”
- ‘Thou fool!’ God said.
1907.
