Page 307 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

She heard what I said; then, sobbing,
Broke from my knee and fled
Up to her room, and I heard her
Kneeling beside her bed.
She prayed in her chi:dish fashion,
But her words were choked with tears—
I had told her it wasn't always
God the prayer of the children hears.

She prayed that her absent father
Might come back safe and well,
From the perils of war and battle,
To mother and little Nell.
And, ere ever her prayer was finished,
The door was opened wide,
And my dril ling rushed towards me,—
M y darling who had died !

J gave one cry and 3. fainted,
And Nell ran down at the erv :
*
"T h ey said God wouldn't hear me,”
She told him by-and-by.
When the shock of surprise was over
We knew what the miracle meant,
ThereVI been a mistake in the bodies,
And the news to the wrong wife .sent.

There were two of his name in the regiment—
The other was killed, and when
It came to making the list out
An error was made in the men.
Yet 1 think as 1 clasp my darling,
Would he still be here to-day
Had I .shaken Nell's simple tenet,
“ God listens when children pray? r‘
G e o r g e R . S im s,