JENIFER'S LOVE

Small is my secret--let it pass—
Small in your life the share I had,

Who sat beside you in the class,
Awed by the bright superior lad:

Whom yet with hot and eager face

I prompted when he missed his place.

For you the call came swift and soon:
But sometimes in your holidays

You meet me trudging home at noon
To dinner through the dusty ways,

And recognized, and with a nod

Passed on, but never guessed—thank God!

Truly our ways were separate.
I bent myself to hoe and drill,

Yea, with an honest man to mate,
Fulfilling God Almighty's will;

And bore him children. But my prayers

Were yours—and, only after, theirs.

While you—still loftier, more remote,
You sprang from stair to stair of fame,

And you've a riband on your coat,
And you've a title to your name;

But have you yet a star to shine

Above your bed, as I o'er mine?