Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/91

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BABY LOOKING OUT FOR ME.
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BABY LOOKING OUT FOR ME.


TWO little busy hands patting on the window,
Two laughing bright eyes looking out at me;
Two rosy red cheeks dented with a dimple;
Mother-bird is coming; Baby, do you see?

Down by the lilac-bush, something white and azure
Saw I in the window as I passed the tree;
Well I knew the apron and shoulder-knots of ribbon;
All belonged to Baby, looking out for me.

Talking low and tenderly
To myself, as mothers will,
Spake I softly, "God in heaven,
Keep my darling free from ill.
Worldly good and worldly honors
Ask I not for her from Thee;
But from want and sin and sorrow,
Keep her ever pure and free."

****
Two little waxen hands
Folded soft and silently;
Two little curtained eyes
Looking out no more for me;
Two little snowy cheeks,
Dimple-dented nevermore;
Two little trodden shoes,
That will never touch the floor;
Shoulder-ribbon softly twisted,
Apron folded, clean and white;

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