The maiden-lady living near the roof
Quoted Isaiah may be, or perhaps Job--
How the Lord gives, and likewise takes away,
And how exceeding blessed is the Lord!--
For she has pious features; while downstairs
Two 'medicals'--both 'decent' lads enough--
Hearkened the story out like gentlemen,
And said the right thing--almost looked it too!
Though all the while within them laughed a sea
Of student mirth, which for full half an hour
They stifled well, but then could hold no more,
As soon their mad piano testified:
While in the kitchen dinner was toward
With hiss and bubble from the cooking stove,
And now a laugh from John ran up the stairs,
And a voice called aloud--of boiling pans.
'So soon,' reflected I, 'the waters of life
Close o'er the sunken head!' Reflected _I_,
Not that in truth I was more pitiful
To the poor dead than those about me were,
Nay, but a trick of thinking much on Life
And Death i' the piece giveth each little strand
More deep significance--love for the whole
Must make us tender for the parts, methinks,
As in some souls the equal law holds true,
Sorrow for one makes sorrow for the world.
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