BEAUTIFUL THINGS.
BEAUTIFUL faces are those that wear
It matters little if dark or fair
Whole-souled honesty printed there.
Beautiful eyes are those that show,
Like crystal panes where hearth-fires glow,
Beautiful thoughts that burn below.
Beautiful lips are those whose words
Leap from the heart like the song of birds,
Yet whose utterance prudence girds.
Beautiful hands are those that do
Work that is earnest, brave and true,
Moment by moment, the long day through.
Beautiful feet are those that go
On kindly ministries to and fro
Down lowliest ways, if God wills it so.
Beautiful shoulders are those that bear
Ceaseless burdens of homely care
With patient grace and daily prayer.
Beautiful lives are those that bless
Silent rivers of happiness,
Whose hidden fountains but few may guess,
Beautiful twilight, at set of sun,
Beautiful goal, with race well won,
Beautiful rest, with work well done.
Beautiful graves where grasses creep,
Where brown leaves fall, where drifts lie deep,
Over worn-put hands oh, beautiful sleep!
Ellen R. Allerton.