| |
| ’T WAS a night to make the bravest | |
| Shrink from the tempest’s breath, | |
| For the winter snows were bitter, | |
| And the winds were cruel as death. | |
| |
| All day on the roofs of Warsaw | 5 |
| Had the white storm sifted down | |
| Till it almost hid the humble huts | |
| Of the poor outside the town. | |
| |
| And it beat upon one low cottage | |
| With a sort of reckless spite, | 10 |
| As if to add to their wretchedness | |
| Who sat by its hearth that night; | |
| |
| Where Dorby, the Polish peasant, | |
| Took his pale wife by the hand, | |
| And told her that when the morrow came | 15 |
| They would have no home in the land. | |
| |
| No human hand would aid him | |
| With the rent that was due at morn; | |
| And his cold, hard-hearted landlord | |
| Had spurned his prayers with scorn. | 20 |
| |
| Then the poor man took his Bible, | |
| And read, while his eyes grew dim, | |
| To see if any comfort | |
| Were written there for him; | |
| |
| When he suddenly heard a knocking | 25 |
| On the casement, soft and light: | |
| It was n’t the storm; but what else could be | |
| Abroad in such a night? | |
| |
| Then he went and opened the window, | |
| But for wonder scarce could speak, | 30 |
| As a bird flew in with a jewelled ring | |
| Held flashing in his beak. | |
| |
| “’T is the bird I trained,” said Dorby, | |
| “And that is the precious ring | |
| That once I saw on the royal hand | 35 |
| Of our good and gracious king. | |
| |
| “And if birds, as our lesson tells us, | |
| Once came with food to men, | |
| Who knows,” said the foolish peasant, | |
| “But they might be sent again!” | 40 |
| |
| So he hopefully went with the morning, | |
| And knocked at the palace gate, | |
| And gave to the king the jewel | |
| They had searched for long and late. | |
| |
| And when he had heard the story | 45 |
| Which the peasant had to tell, | |
| He gave him a fruitful garden, | |
| And a home wherein to dwell. | |
| |
| And Dorby wrote o’er the doorway | |
| These words that all might see: | 50 |
| “Thou hast called on the Lord in trouble, | |
| And he hath delivered thee!” | |
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