A Ballad for a Cottage Wall

A child sate by the meadow-gate,
A tender girl and young ;
With many a tear her eyes were wet,
And thus she sate and sung : —

" Ah ! woe is me ! for I have no grace,
Nor goodness as I ought ;
I never shall go to the happy place,
And 'tis all my parents' fault.

" To this bad world they brought me in,
A place where all must grieve ;
With flesh of misery and sin,
From Adam and from Eve.

" And then they shunned the churchyard path,
Where holy angels haunt ;
They would not bear their child of wrath
To yonder blessed font

" They kept me from that second birth,
Which God to baptism gave ;
And now I have no hope on earth,
Nor peace beyond the grave.

" Yet a thought is in my mind to-day —
It came I know not how :
I will go to the font at church, and say
I seek my baptism now.

" Yes ! God is kind : I shall then have grace
And goodness as I ought.
For oh ! if I lose the happy place
'Twill be my poor parents' fault."

'Twas a child of meek and gentle kind,
A tender girl and young ;
And angels put into her mind
The solemn words she sung.