LINES WRITTEN IN THE SALIENT.
[To TER EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."'
enclose a copy of verses sent to my baby from her godfather, Lieutenant at the front. They were written one night in the trenches at Ypres after a specially objectionable time.—I am, Sir, Ac., Y.
To Piriramorins (AGED 18 MONTHS)-NOT TO STOP SECII.DICh•
A childlike smile is of all things on earth The far most beautiful and far most fair, For there is naught, whatever it is worth, However glorious, however rare, That can one instant with a smile compete Without it sinks, and falls, lost, dead, effete.
For smiles, dear child, are half life's battle won They cheer the worn-out wand'rer on his way, Making full sunshine ere the day's begun, - And turning to bright light the dullest day. For him who draws a smile with every breath All things come casy—even unto death. -
And if perchance it hap that thou must weep—
Rays thro' the clouds are sunniest of all ; And if at night thou still sroll'st thro' thy sleep, The happier dreams will on thee gently fall. For smiles are gold, and very truest gold, . That gold which buys all things, which are not sold.
And so, dear child, seeing what smiles still can, And will, still do for each and every day, This one request do I entreat thee—ban
Ne'er from thine eyes that one most sunny ray, Lest having lost the art of smiling free, It may be gone ne'er to return to thee.
And when in time it comes that thou must die, Die smiling, for no smiling soul as yet Has over sought from smiling death to fly :
For death tho' .grim is e'er on smiling set, And is not half so grim as sad men say, But softly smiles on him who smiles alway.
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