WHICH ONE

Each was as fair as the other, And both as my life were dear; And the voices that lisped me mother, Heaven's music in my ear.

One faded from life—and mother, And died in the summer dawn; And I turned away from the other And wept for the child that was gone.

Then I lay in a weird sleep-vision, Before me an earth dark scene, And the land of the sweet Elysian, And only a grave between.

One child soft called me mother Out from the shining door, And smile and beckoned; the other Unconsciously played on the floor.

One's path, to my inward seeing, Was light with a wondrous day, And led to the heights of being, And an angel showed the way.

The other lay where Marah's Hot sands with snares are strewn— Through many a darksome forest, And the way was roughly hewn.

A faith to my soul was given— The weird sleep-vision o'er— And I turned from the child in heaven To the child that played on the floor.