The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[205] She bore him to a pleasant room,
     Flower-sweet and cool with salt sea air,
And watched beside his bed, for whom
     His far-off sisters might not care.

She fanned his feverish brow and smoothed
     Its lines of pain with tenderest touch.
With holy hymn and prayer she soothed
     The trembling soul that feared so much.

Through her the peace that passeth sight
     Came to him, as he lapsed away
As one whose troubled dreams of night
     Slide slowly into tranquil day.

The sweetness of the Land of Flowers
     Upon his lonely grave she laid:
The jasmine dropped its golden showers,
     The orange lent its bloom and shade.

And something whispered in her thought,
     More sweet than mortal voices be:
“The service thou for him hast wrought
     O daughter! hath been done for me.”

1875.