ly sobbed, "our Lord.
I brought Thee gold--a worthless hoard--
Thou wouldst not let me in before.

"But now I come to Thee with this--
A little thing, 'tis very small--
I pray Thee take it not amiss,
My gold is in the dark abyss,
This little tear, oh Lord, is all!"

"Oh wondrous drop," Saint Peter cried,
"That shows the sap of life within
A _living_ Soul, with chance to win
A place with God, immune from sin!
Methought the fount of Life had dried"
(He flung the Gates of Heaven wide),
"Go, _living_ Soul, and enter in!"

There in the lowest halls of grace,
Through deep remorse and pains austere
He washed his soul from sin's dark trace,
Then in his heart-felt awe and fear
He lowly sought his Saviour's face,
Saved to life through a love-shed tear!

Madonna Granduca and Child

Little Christ, little Christ,
Sheltered there on Mary's breast,
All Thy child-like purity
Lightens life's obscurity,
So I thank Thee
For that ray of light confessed.

Sweet Thy mother, Baby Christ,
Sweet in woman's modesty;
But to such an one as me
I would choose to kneel to Thee,
To Thy young simplicity,
To Thy full divinity,
Little Christ.

Give me tears to keep me clean,
Give me joyfulness serene,
Steep me for futurity
In Thy white-souled purity.
For Thine innocence sufficed,
Little Christ, little Christ,
Vagrants like myself to bless,
So I thank Thee
For Thy perfect holiness,
Little Christ.

A Vision of a Day that is Past

The sky hung smooth o'er the line of hill
That shadowed the valley that seemed so still,
And the blackbird whistled his love notes shrill.

The church lay dreaming of God, and when
The bodies should rise from her graveyard pen
Where the high grass covered her poor dead men.

The water meadows shone rich with gold,
Gold that the buttercups had sold
To the nibbling sheep of the red ring-fold.

And even the river murmured rest
As the sun sank low in the tender west,
And the earth flowers slept on their mother's breast.

Over the valley that seemed so still,
Where the blackbird whistled his love-notes shrill
I gazed, and all against my will
I saw a vision beneath the hill.

Centuries passed like a mist away
And I stood i