SPEAK GENTLY. SPEAK gently! it is better far Speak gently! love doth whisper low Speak gently to the little child! Speak gently to the young, for they Pass through this life as best they may, 'Tis full of anxious care. Speak gently to the aged one, Grieve not the careworn heart; Speak gently, kindly, to the poor, 104 MY LITTLE BROTHER. Speak gently to the erring; know Speak gently! He who gave His life Speak gently! 'tis a little thing Dropp'd in the heart's deep well; MY LITTLE BROTHER.* LITTLE brother, darling boy, When your smiling face I see. How I wish that you could speak, And could know the words I say; Pretty stories I would seek, To amuse you every day : *This, with the two following Poems, inserted by permission of Messrs. W. Oliphant & Co., Edinburgh. THE LAMB'S LULLABY. All about the honey-bees, Flying past us in the sun; I'll be very kind to you, Never strike or make you cry, Shake your rattle-here it is— 105 M. L. DUNCAN. THE LAMB'S LULLABY. THE pretty little lambs that lie, While I, a happy little maid, Bid dear papa good-night; And in my crib so warm am laid, And tuck'd up snug and tight. 106 THE LAMB'S LULLABY. And then some pretty hymn Ann sings But the young helpless lambs, poor things, Haste, kind mamma, and call them here, For in the chilly fields, I fear, MOTHER. The lambs sleep in the fields, 'tis true, And yet they are as warm as you They choose some dry and grassy spot, To other songs they listen not And when the night is bitter cold, How happy are the lambs, my love, 107 EVENING HYMN. His lambs He gathers in His arms, How blest, how safe from all alarms, Oh, if you'll be His gentle child, MARY LUNDIE DUNCAN. EVENING HYMN. JESUS, tender Shepherd, hear me; All this day Thy hand has led me, Let my sins be all forgiven, Bless the friends I love so well; Take me, when I die, to heaven, Happy there with Thee to dwell. M. L. DUNCAN. |