The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-11-06
rs 1T ALL THERE STILL?

AMONG the poor children who were sent in
70 the country last year by the Children's
W eek ASSOCIATION was one little waif who in
all her life before had never seen any thing
pleasanter than the noisy, dirty streets of the
lower portion of the city. Sickening of fatal
disease, the scenes of that one bright week
haunted her, and she begged to see the farm
eTs wife in whose care she had been; and
wnen the good woman entered the bare gar
ret where the little sufferer lay, the child cried
out feverishly, as it all there?" and wanted
TO hear about every place and creature she
had there seen. The kind woman took the
chlld back with her into the country, where,
IN the midst OF loving care, surrounded by the
beauty OF early summer, she peacefully died.
She sat where the great elm's shadow
Across the doorway fell;
She heard the drip of the bucket
In the hollow OF the well,
The pleasant rasp from the garden
OF busy spade and hoe.
Beyond, in the sunny meadows,
Her mates ran to and fro.
The chipping robin on the Dough
Was for one moment still -.
Deep dipping into cherries wine
His thirsting yellow bill.
A whirl of pale gold butterflies
Alighting on the stone,
With flicker of their filmy wings,
In quivering silence shone.
Before her mates had flown:
know not if she understood
These were for her alone.
at eve, when the cows and children
Came home from the field and vale,
In the wonder of the sunset,
The child sat dumb and pale.
They clamored for the evening meal;
She neither asked nor stirred,
But took what the housewife gave her,
And ate without word.
Such morns and moons and nights were hers
For six glad summer days;
Then back to the city's cropping life
OF dearth and fret and trays.
Six breathless days of mute delight,
And then-the binding pail!
Six days and just to think for whom
The good God made it all
She lay where the dull wallis shadow
Fell on her bed of straw,
With the largest eyes in the thinnest
race that you ever saw.
Is it all there still?" she murmured,
And wrung her feeble hands
The woods, and the long bright meadows
The door where the elm tree stands?
Do the cows come home when the sunset
Makes that great fire at nigh?
DO they give you pals and pals of milk?
Is 1t Just as sweet and white?
T nen t lxe 9 to ms se n my papers,
But couldn't, for the dirty street,
The noise, the dingy wall
"They staid with me always-alwavs:
They shut field and sky.
Tell me, those things you planted,
Did they come up by and-by?
"The stream that ran by the road. side,
The lambs asleep on the hill,
want so much-so much-to know
II it is all there STILL"
"Why shouldn't you come to it, my child?"
The kindly housewife said;
And soon the shadow of the elm
Fell on that patient head.
The farmer took the wasted hand
Upon his own broad palm,
And cleared his throat ere he could say,
You're welcome to the farm
He held her while the good wife MIXED
The sleek and healthy kline,
He made her pleasant seats beneath
The oak and fragrant pine,
And carried her from place to place.
She seldom spoke a word,
But smiled and gaZed, and grew, he said,
No heftier'n a Bird
OF summers scents and sights and sounds
The child's soul drank its fill
Till berries darkened on their vine
By field and wood and hill.
And then, one night-the sun had built
Its great fire in the west
Yes, have seen it all,'' she sighed,
And now L want to rest"
o Life, so bright when thou art freel
In bonds, so drear and dim
Who frees thee to one little child
Hath loosed its bonds from Him!
I. B. GuStGfson, in Ha1per's Magazine.