Young Folk

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 11, 10 June 1893, Page 2

Young Folk

THE OLD STONE BASIN. In the heart of the busy city, In the scorching noon-tide heat, A sound of bubbling water Falls on the din of the street. It falls.in a gray stone basin And over the cool wet brink The heads of thirsty horses Each moment are stretched to < rink. And peeping between the crowding heads As the horses come and go, “The Gift of Three Little Sisters” Is read on the stone below. Ah, beasts are not taught letters, They know no alphabet; And never a horse in all these years Has read thewords, and yet I think that each toil-worn creature Who stops to drink by the way, His thanks, in his own dumb fashion, To the sisters small must pay. Years have gone by since busy hands Wrought at the basin’s stone ; The kindly little sisters Are all to women grown. I do not know their home oi fates Or the name they bear to men, But the sweetness of their gracious deed Is just as fresh as then. And all life long, and after life, They must the happier be For this “ Cup of water ” given by them When they were children three. —St. Nicholas.