| |
| HER ways were gentle while a babe, | |
| With calm and tranquil eye, | |
| That turned instinctively to seek | |
| The blueness of the sky. | |
| A holy smile was on her lip | 5 |
| Whenever sleep was there; | |
| She slept, as sleeps the blossom, hushed | |
| Amid the silent air. | |
| |
| And ere she left with tottling steps | |
| The low-roofed cottage door, | 10 |
| The beetle and the cricket loved | |
| The young child on the floor; | |
| For every insect dwelt secure | |
| Where little Eva played, | |
| And piped for her its blithest song | 15 |
| When she in greenwood strayed. | |
| |
| With wing of gauze and mailëd coat | |
| They gathered round her feet, | |
| Rejoiced, as are all gladsome things, | |
| A truthful soul to greet. | 20 |
| They taught her infant lips to sing | |
| With them a hymn of praise, | |
| The song that in the woods is heard, | |
| Through the long summer days. | |
| |
| And everywhere the child was traced | 25 |
| By snatches of wild song | |
| That marked her feet along the vale | |
| Or hillside, fleet and strong. | |
| She knew the haunts of every bird— | |
| Where bloomed the sheltered flower, | 30 |
| So sheltered that the searching frost | |
| Might scarcely find its bower. | |
| |
| No loneliness young Eva knew, | |
| Though playmates she had none: | |
| Such sweet companionship was hers, | 35 |
| She could not be alone; | |
| For everything in earth or sky | |
| Caressed the little child,— | |
| The joyous bird upon the wing, | |
| The blossom in the wild. | 40 |
| |
| Much dwelt she on the green hill-side, | |
| And under forest tree; | |
| Beside the running, babbling brook, | |
| Where lithe trout sported free. | |
| She saw them dart, like stringëd gems, | 45 |
| Where the tangled roots were deep, | |
| And learned that love forevermore | |
| The heart will joyful keep. | |
| |
| She loved all simple flowers that spring | |
| In grove or sunlit dell, | 50 |
| And of each streak and varied hue | |
| Would pretty meanings tell. | |
| For her a language was impressed | |
| On every leaf that grew, | |
| And lines revealing brighter worlds | 55 |
| That seraph fingers drew. | |
| |
| The opening bud that lightly swung | |
| Upon the dewy air, | |
| Moved in its very sportiveness | |
| Beneath angelic care; | 60 |
| She saw that pearly fingers oped | |
| Each curved and painted leaf, | |
| And where the canker-worm had been | |
| Were looks of angel grief. | |
| |
| Each tiny leaf became a scroll | 65 |
| Inscribed with holy truth, | |
| A lesson that around the heart | |
| Should keep the dew of youth, | |
| Bright missals from angelic throngs | |
| In every byway left:— | 70 |
| How were the earth of glory shorn, | |
| Were it of flowers bereft! | |
| |
| Young Eva said all noisome weeds | |
| Would pass from earth away, | |
| When virtue in the human heart | 75 |
| Held its predestined sway. | |
| Exalted thoughts were always hers, | |
| Some deemed them strange and wild; | |
| And hence, in all the hamlets round, | |
| Her name of Sinless Child. | 80 |
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