nd, you understand, in the meller twilight--till, the first
thing you know, there stood the old schoolhouse where me and him first
learnt to chew tobacco, and all that! Well, sir! you hain't got no
idea of the feelin's that was mine! W'y, I felt like I could th'ow my
arms around the dear old buildin' and squeeze it till the cupolo would
jes' pop out of the top of the roof like the core out of a b'ile! And
I think if they ever was a' epoch in my life when I could 'a' tackled
poetry without no compunctions, as the feller says, w'y, then was the
time--shore!"

TO THE QUIET OBSERVER

ERASMUS WILSON, AFTER HIS LONG SILENCE

Dear old friend of us all in need
Who know the worth of a friend indeed,
How rejoiced are we all to learn
Of your glad return.

We who have missed your voice so long--
Even as March might miss the song
Of the sugar-bird in the maples when
They're tapped again.

Even as the memory of these
_Blended_ sweets,--the sap of the trees
And the song of the birds, and the old camp too,
We think of you.

Hail to you, then, with welcomes deep
As grateful hearts may laugh or weep!--
You give us not only the bird that sings,
But all good things.

AMERICA'S THANKSGIVING

1900

Father all bountiful, in mercy bear
With this our universal voice of prayer--
The voice that needs must be
Upraised in thanks to Thee,
O Father, from Thy Children everywhere.

A multitudinous voice, wherein we fain
Wouldst have Thee hear no lightest sob of pain--
No murmur of distress,
Nor moan of loneliness,
Nor drip of tears, though soft as summer rain.

And, Father, give us first to comprehend,
No ill can come from Thee; lean Thou and lend
Us clearer sight to see
Our boundless debt to Thee,
Since all thy deeds are blessings, in the end.

And let us feel and know that, being Thine,
We are inheritors of hearts divine,
And hands endowed with skill,
And strength to work Thy will,
And fashion to fulfilment Thy design.

So, let us thank Thee, with all self aside,
Nor any lingering taint of mortal pride;
As here to Thee we dare
Uplift our faltering prayer,
Lend it some fervor of the glorified.

We thank Thee that our land is loved of Thee