3 JANUARY 1903, Page 16

POETRY.

A ROYAL HEART.

RAGGED, uncomely, and old and grey, A woman walked in a Northern town,

And through the crowd as she wound her way One saw her loiter and then stoop down, Putting something away in her old torn gown.

"You are hiding a jewel!" the watcher said.

(Ah ! that was her heart—had the truth been read')

"What have you stolen ? " he asked again.

Then the dim eyes filled with a sudden pain, And under the flickering light of the gas

She showed him her gleaning. "It's broken glass,"

She said; "I has lifted it up frae the street To be oot o the road o' the bairnies' feet!"

Under the fluttering rags astir That was a royal heart that beat!

Would that the world had more like her Smoothing the road for its bairnies' feet!

WILL H. Oon..vin.