Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922.

A Saint’s Hours

IN the still cold before the sun

Her brothers and her sisters small

She woke, and washed and dressed each one.

And through the morning hours all

Singing above her broom she stood

And swept the house from hall to hall.

Then out she ran with tidings good

Across the field and down the lane,

To share them with the neighborhood.

Four miles she walked, and home again,

To sit through half the afternoon

And hear a feeble crone complain.

But when she saw the frosty moon

And lakes of shadow on the hill,

Her maiden dreams grew bright as noon.

She threw her pitying apron frill

Over a little trembling mouse

When the sleek cat yawned on the sill.

In the late hours and drowsy house,

At last, too tired, beside her bed

She fell asleep—her prayers half said.