Jenifer's Love

Small is my secret--let it pass--         Small in your life the share I had,     Who sat beside you in the class,         Awed by the bright superior lad:             Whom yet with hot and eager face             I prompted when he missed his place.     For you the call came swift and soon:         But sometimes in your holidays     You meet me trudging home at noon         To dinner through the dusty ways,             And recognized, and with a nod             Passed on, but never guessed--thank God!     Truly our ways were separate.         I bent myself to hoe and drill,     Yea, with an honest man to mate,         Fulfilling God Almighty's will;             And bore him children. But my prayers             Were yours--and, only after, theirs.     While you--still loftier, more remote,         You sprang from stair to stair of fame,     And you've a riband on your coat,         And you've a title to your name;             But have you yet a star to shine             Above your bed, as I o'er mine?