SELECTED VERSES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8241, 9 September 1905, Page 2

SELECTED VERSES.

" TIRED MOTHERS."

A little elbow leans upon your knee— Your tired knee that has so much to bear; A child's dear eyes are looking lovingly From under a thatch of tangled hair. Perhaps you do not heed the velvet touch Of warm, moist fingers, holding yours so tight; You do not prize the blessing overmuch; You are almost too tired to pray tonight. But it is blessedness! A year ago I did not see it as I do to-day. We are so dull and thankless and too slow To catch the sunshine till it slips away; * And now it seems surpassing strange to me That, while I wore the badge of mother -m hood, I 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 the elbow from your tired knee — This restless, curling head from oil' your breast — This lisping tongue that clatters constantly ; If from your 'own the dimpled hands had slipped And ne'er would nestle in your palm again; If the white feet into their grave had tripped, I could not blame you fur your hearthache then ! I wonder so that mothers ever fret At little children clinging to their gown; Or that the footprints, when the days are wet, Are ever black enough to make them frown. If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot, And hear a patter in my home owa - more; ' \ If I could mend a broken cart to-day— To-morrow make a kite to reach the skyThere is no woman in God's world could say She was more blissfully content than J. But, ah, the dainty pillow next my own Is never rumpled by a shining head ! My singing birdling from its nest has flown — The little boy I used to kiss is dead ! —" Woman's Life."