When I pass from earth away, Palsied though I be and gray, May my spirit keep so young That my failing, faltering tongue Frames that prayer so dear to me, Taught me at my mother’s knee: “_Now I lay me down to sleep_,” (Passing to Eternal rest On the loving parent breast) “_I pray the Lord my soul to keep_;” (From all danger safe and calm In the hollow of His palm;) “_If I should die before I wake_,” (Drifting with a bated breath Out of slumber into death,) “_I pray the Lord my soul to take_.” (From the body’s claim set free Sheltered in the Great to be.) Simple prayer of trust and truth, Taught me in my early youth-- Let my soul its beauty keep When I lay me down to sleep. THE MESSENGER. She rose up in the early dawn, And white and silently she moved About the house. Four men had gone To battle for the land they loved, And she, the mother and the wife, Waited for tidings from the strife. How still the house seemed! and her tread Was like the footsteps of the dead. The long day passed; the dark night came. She had not seen a human face. Some voice spoke suddenly her name. How loud it echoed in that place, Where, day on day, no sound was heard But her own footsteps. “Bring you word,” She cried to whom she could not see, “Word from the battle-plain to me?” A soldier entered at the door, And stood within the dim firelight: “I bring you tidings of the four,” He said, “who left you for the fight.” “God bless you, friend,” she cried, “speak on! For I can bear it. One is gone?” “Ay, one is gone!” he said. “Which one?” “Dear lady, he, your eldest son.” A deathly pallor shot across Her withered face; she did not weep. She said: “It is a grievous loss, But God gives His belovèd sleep. What of the living--of the three? And when can they come back to me?” The soldier turned away his head: “Lady, your husband, too, is dead.” She put her hand upon her brow; A wild, sharp pain was in her eyes. “My husband! Oh, God, help me now!” The soldier heard her shuddering sighs. The task was harder than he thought. “Your youngest son, dear madam, fought Close at his father’s side; both fell Dead, by the bursting of a shell.”