hat other waiting
Sufferers might have a chance to live.
With rest at home the healing work begun
Would one day be complete.

Ye men of wealth,
And all that generous give, with all that halt,
Herein your golden opportunity
Doth lie. A home you have prepared for them
That leave the prison cell, and this is well.
But what awaits the convalescent widow
And the orphan, fighting off the wasting plague?
Suspicion--dread--a refuge craved for vainly
Here and there--a battle hopeless, lost.
Awake, awake! Oh, give the shelter sure
A child would give to any famished waif!
Oh, wake, compassion, wake!

When David, big
With joy, returned, the wind sang in the trees,
The flowers, red and white, a welcome smiled,
The cottage seemed to be a prince's home,
And mother in her loveliness a queen,
While in the mother's eyes her child appeared
As if a shepherd lad, he looked so strong,
So lithe, and ruddy. But the only flock
That David had consisted of a kitten,
Now a cat renowned of tiger-stripe
And fat. And once again the cottage-home
Gave foretaste of the other, deathless, pure,
And glad, for love was there.

With quenchless hope
The happy widow bravely bent her shoulders
To the yoke again. She had her boy
To live for, work for, love, and he would be
A man some day, and strong, when she would lean
On him as he had leaned on her. And yet
The yoke was heavy, and grew heavier
As vigour waned. In spite of hope and will
She craved for rest. Or even if the wage
Were better, labour could be lessened
And give more of rest.

ON STRIKE

One day some workmen
Struck for better pay. And David wondered
What it meant to strike. "What is it, mother?--
Do they hit the men that give them work?"
The mother smiled. "No, no, my child, they merely
Rest or cease from work to force their masters
Into giving better pay to get them
Back to work." A happy thought now seized him--
"Oh, mother, strike, and then the people sure
Will give you better pay." The mother smiled,
But sighed and said, "My darling boy, if I
Should strike, a score of women poor are ready,
Even glad, to take my place, perchance for less."
The boy was disappointed, and his heart
Was sad.

But "strike," that odd word strike, as meaning
Rest from work, or stopping work, clung fast
To David's mind. Apart from b