The Needed One.

'Twas not rare versatility,         Nor gift of poesy or art,     Nor piquant, sparkling jeux d'esprit         Which at the call of fancy come,         That touched the universal heart,         And won the world's encomium.     It was not beauty's potent charm;         For admiration followed her     Unmindful of the rounded arm,         The fair complexion's brilliancy,         If form and features shapely were         Or lacked the grace of symmetry.     So not by marked, especial power         She grew endeared to human thought,     But just because, in trial's hour,         Was loving service to be done         Or sympathy and counsel sought,         She made herself the needed one.         Oh, great the blessedness must be         Of heart and hand and brain alert         In projects wise and manifold,         Impending sorrow to avert     That duller natures fail to see,         Or stand aloof severe and cold!     And who shall doubt that this is why         In womanhood's florescent prime     She passed the portals of the sky?         As if a life thus truly given         To purpose pure and act sublime         Were needed also up in Heaven.