The parchéd earth drinks up The crystal-flowing cup; The dusty grasses wash them emerald-green again: The sweet, drenched roses sigh In fragrant ecstasy; The truant brooks foam down their glistening beds amain. {41} The robins, full of glee, Answer from tree to tree; 'Neath dusky boughs the glancing orioles, aglow, Mimic the vivid play Of lightnings far away, That southward toss their fiery shuttles to and fro: While at the fall and lift Of lights and shadows swift, Titanic laughter rolls through all the bending skies, And every water-bead Trembles, but laughs, indeed, And every insect quicklier breathes as low he lies. O Heart! whose pity flows To cheer the languid rose. O Hand! outstretched to wake the brooklet's merry din, Behold me like a blot Upon this happy spot, Where joys knock at my door, but never enter in! Behold the arid ways Through which my weary days Tread with unfruitful steps that wander far from thee; The wasted heart and brain, All empty, save for pain; Behold the hidden thorn which thou alone canst see; And while my fainting sighs Through nature's hymn arise, O Comforter of flowers! leave not me to die! But send thy heavenly rain Unto my soul again, Even to me, as grieving in the dust I lie! ---------- {42} Who shall take care of our Sick? We have taken occasion, in recent numbers of _The Catholic World_, to present to our readers several of the works of charity which appeal most strongly to Christian sympathy and ask for Christian aid. In our articles on "The Sanitary and Moral Condition of the City of New York"--as but one, however, out of the many cities of our land with like evils and like needs--we directed attention to some lamentable features of the situation of the poor in our midst, and especially of the many thousands of poor and vagrant children growing up in neglect and consequent ignorance and vice. The kindred matter of the condition and proper treatment of the inmates of our jails, prisons, and penitentiaries was touched upon in our last, under the head of "Prison Discipline;" and, again, that of the poor and unfortunate subjects of mental ailments in the article on "Gheel, a Colony of the Insane." In the present number, we invite attention to another branch of the subject, suggested by the inquiry at the head of this article, "Who shall take care of our sick?"