Posted by Jeffrey on July 29, 1998 at 04:16:22:
Little Jim
The cottage was a thatched one,
The outside old and mean
Yet everything within that cot
Was wondrous neat and clean.
The night was dark and stormy,
The wind was howling wild;
A patient mother knelt beside
The death bed of her child.
A little worn out creature,
His once bright eyes grown dim;
It was a colliers only child
They called him Little Jim.
And oh! to see the briny tears
Fast hurrying down her cheeks,
As she offered up, a prayer in thought,
She was afraid to speak,
Lest she might waken one she loved:
Far better than her life;
For there was all a mothers love,
In that poor colliers wife.
With hands uplifted, see, she kneels
Besides the sufferers bed;
And prays that He will spare her boy,
And take herself instead.
She gets her answer from the child,
Soft fell these words from him,
Mother, the angels do so smile,
And beckon Little Jim.
I have no pain, dear mother, now,
But Oh , I am so dry;
Just moisten poor Jim's lips again
And, Mother, donšt you cry.
With gentle trembling haste she held
The tea cup to his lips;
He smiled to thank her as he took
Three tiny little sips.
Tell Father when he comes from work,
I said Good Night to him;
And mother, now Išll go to sleep
Alas poor little Jim.
She saw that he was dying
The child she loved so dear
Had uttered the last words that she
Might ever hope to hear.
The cottage door was open,
The colliers step is heard;
The Father and the Mother meet,
Yet neither speak a word.
He knew that all was over,
He knew his child was dead;
He took the candle in his hand
And walked towards the bed.
His quivering lips gave token
Of the grief hešd failed to conceal
And see his wife has joined him,
The stricken couple kneel.
With hearts bowed down with sadness
They humbly asked of Him,
In heaven ,once more to meet again
Their own poor Little Jim.
End.
Partly of lifešs experience and partly of something remembered I write to relieve, selfishly myself.