LITTLE AT FIRST

New Zealand Tablet, 26 June 1913, Page 61

LITTLE AT FIRST

v;,.,,; t ‘ ■ ———■ — A little stream had lost its way Amid the grass and fern A passing stranger scoop’d a well Where weary men might turn; He wall'd it in and hung with care A ladle at the brink. He thought not of the deed he did, But judged that all might drink. He passed again and lo! the well, By summer never dried. Had cool'd ten thousand parching tongues, And saved a life beside. A nameless man, amid a crowd That throng the daily mart, Let fall a word of hope and love, Unstudied from the heart, A whisper on the tumult thrown, A transitory breath. It raised a brother from the dust, It saved a soul from death. O germ, 0 fount, 0 word of love, O thought at random cast! Ye were but little at the first, But mighty at the last.