For days of health, for nights of quiet sleep; for seasons of bounty and of beauty, for all earth's contributions to our need through this past year: Good Lord, we thank Thee. For our country's shelter; for our homes; for the joy of faces, and the joy of hearts that love: for the power of great examples; for holy ones who lead us in the ways of life and love: for our powers of growth; for longings to be better and do more; for Ideals that ever rise above our real: for opportunities well used; for opportunities unused, and even those misused: Good Lord, we humbly thank Thee! For our temptations, and for any victory over sins that close beset us; for the gladness that abides with loyalty and the peace of the return: for the blessedness of service and the power to fit ourselves to others' needs: for our necessities to work; for burdens, pain, and disappointments, means of growth; for sorrow; for death: for all that brings us nearer to each other, nearer to ourselves, near to Thee; for Life: We thank Thee, O our Father! WILLIAM C. GANNETT. Birth of a Baby _Where did you come from, baby dear? Out of the everywhere into the here._ _Where did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky as I came through._ _What makes the light in them sparkle and spin? Some of the starry spikes left in._ _Where did you get that little tear? I found it waiting when I got here._ _What makes your forehead so smooth and high? A soft hand stroked it as I went by._ _What makes your cheek like a warm white rose? Something better than anyone knows._ _Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss? Three angels gave me at once a kiss._ _Where did you get those arms and hands? Love made itself into hooks and bands._ _Feet, whence did you come, you darling things? From the same box as the cherub's wings._ _How did they all just come to be you? God thought about me, and so I grew._ _But how did you come to us, you dear? God thought of You, and so I am here._ GEORGE MACDONALD