TIRED MOTHERS

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 481, 11 August 1914, Page 2

TIRED MOTHERS

A little elbow leans upon your knee, Your tired knee that lias so much to bear. A child's dear eyes are looking lovingly From underneath a thatch of tangled hair. Perhaps you do not heed the velvet touch 01 warm, moist fingers, holding yours so tight ; You do nofc prize this blessing overmuch, You are almost too tired to pray to-night. But it is blessedness! A year ago I did not see it as I 0.0 to-day — We are so dull and thankless, and so slow To catch the sunshine till it slips away. And now it seems surpassing strange to me That, while I bore the hadge of motherhood, T did not kiss more oft and tenderly The little child that brought me only good. And if some night, when you sit down to rest, You miss this elbow from your tired knee, This restless, curly head from off your breast, This lisping tongue, that chatters constantly • If from your own the dimpled hand had slipped, And ne'er would nestle m your palm again, If the white feet into the grave had tripped, I could not blame you> for your heartache then. I wonder so that mothers ever fret At little children clinging to their gown, Or that the footprints, when the days art wet, Are ever black enough tq make them frown. If I couM find a little muddy boot, Or cap or jacket on my chamber floor; If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot And hear it patter m my home onoe more; If I could mend a broken cart to-day, To-morrow make a kite to reach the sky— • There is no woman m God's world could say ? She was more blissfully content than I. But, ah ! the dainty pillow next my own * Is never rumpled by a shining head.; jB My singing birdling from its nest has flown— ■ The little boy I used to kiss is dead! —Mary Ripley Smith, m the 'Springfield Republican.'