Page:The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter.djvu/111

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KATHLEEN'S CHARITY


“For I have robbed my father dear,
My father old and weak,
And oh, what shall I answer him
When he his grain shall seek?

“And oh, what shall I say to him
That he could me believe
Who sowed the chaff upon the ground.
His dim eyes to deceive?”

And woeful looked she to the north,
And woeful to the south.
And there she saw a little child
With laughter on his mouth.

She looked into her father's field.
Where once the chaff had been,
And lo! the sprouting grain was there,
With ears all high and green.

“The world is good,” said young Kathleen,
And knelt her down to pray,
“I know that some of God's sweet saints
Did visit me to-day.”