To A Sick Child During The Siege Of Paris.

("Si vous continuez toute ple.")     [November, 1870.]     If you continue thus so wan and white;         If I, one day, behold     You pass from out our dull air to the light,         You, infant - I, so old:     If I the thread of our two lives must see         Thus blent to human view,     I who would fain know death was near to me,         And far away for you;     If your small hands remain such fragile things;         If, in your cradle stirred,     You have the mien of waiting there for wings,         Like to some new-fledged bird;     Not rooted to our earth you seem to be.         If still, beneath the skies,     You turn, O Jeanne, on our mystery         Soft, discontented eyes!     If I behold you, gay and strong no more;         If you mope sadly thus;     If you behind you have not shut the door,         Through which you came to us;     If you no more like some fair dame I see         Laugh, walk, be well and gay;     If like a little soul you seem to me         That fain would fly away -     I'll deem that to this world, where oft are blent         The pall and swaddling-band,     You came but to depart - an angel sent         To bear me from the land.     LUCY H. HOOPER.