Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

The First Step

By Andrew Bice Saxton (1856–1936)

MY little one begins his feet to try,

A tottering, feeble, inconsistent way;

Pleased with the effort, he forgets his play,

And leaves his infant baubles where they lie.

Laughing and proud his mother flutters nigh,

Turning to go, yet joy-compelled to stay,

And bird-like, singing what her heart would say;

But not so certain of my bliss am I,

For I bethink me of the days in store

Wherein those feet must traverse realms unknown,

And half forget the pathway to our door.

And I recall that in the seasons flown

We were his all—as he was all our own—

But never can be quite so any more.

The Century Magazine. 1884.