| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 604. The Child in the Street |
| | | For a Volume of Double Authorship |
| | | By John James Piatt |
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| EVEN as tender parents lovingly | |
| Send a dear child in some true servant’s care | |
| Forth in the street, for larger light and air, | |
| Feeling the sun her guardian will be, | |
| And dreaming with a blushful pride that she | 5 |
| Will earn sweet smiles and glances every-where, | |
| From loving faces; and that passers fair | |
| Will bend, and bless, and kiss her, when they see, | |
| And ask her name, and if her home is near, | |
| And think, “O gentle child, how blessed are they | 10 |
| Whose twofold love bears up a single flower!” | |
| And so with softer musing move away,— | |
| We send thee forth, O Book, thy little hour— | |
| The world may pardon us to hold thee dear. | |
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