IN THE EGRETS NEST

Evening Star, Issue 14513, 3 November 1910, Page 3

IN THE EGRETS NEST

The Angel who numbers the birds for the God of AJI Things That Be Had come alar from his journeying over the land and the fo-a, And ho spake to the Lord of the Sparrows : “ Tine was my count to-day ; Thom that were slain I numbered, and the sparrows that fell by the way. Ami down in the reeds and water-grass of an island in the west I counted the young of an egret, that starved in the egret’s nest. “ And some they were slain that man might live, for so hast Thou made the law; And some for the lost of their shining plumes, and all of them I saw, And counted all whose songs were hushed within their little throats— The slain for the Law of Living, and the slain for their shining coats. True have I numbered them ail, and the smallest along with the rest — The young that starved in the rushes, alone in the ©grot’s nestl” And the Lord of tho Little Creatures, who marks where His sparrows fall, And in the hollow of His hand makes room for the weak and live small, Tho Father of tho fatherless gave ear, and He listened and heard, And, behold, He bas asked a question: “And what of the mother bird?” Now answer, you who wear tho plumes that were stript from the motherbreast : Tell why the young of the egret starved, alone in the egret’s nest! —Annie M'Qneen, in the ‘lndependent.’ I