Dead You Say Poem by Robert Kirkland Kernighan

The owner of millions, he smiling stood
And gazed through the window in laughing mood ;
And a lad came in with a frightened face,
And stood at his feet with a boyish grace ;
And, lifting his brow, he trembing said,
' They sent me tell you the baby 's dead !'

' What? dead, you say !' and the man turned white
' Why, it slept on my bosom all last night !'

He glanced at the boy with a darkening eye :
' Why should my only baby die?'

Then he staggered home and he touched his wife,
With a touch as kind as the breath of life ;
Then she looked in his eyes and she gave a moan,
And touched the forehead as cold as stone ;
She stood by the couch with her lips apart.
' Oh, baby, return to your mother's heart.'