Which Shall It Be Comments

This is different than the version I've been reading my whole life. This only has 6 children. In the version I have...the baby doesn't have a name and Lily is a seperate child.   First to the cradle lightly stepped, where the new nameless baby slept. Shall it be baby, whispered John. I took his hand and hurried on, to Lily's crib, her sleeping grasp, held it's old doll within it's clasp. Her soft curls lay like gold alight, a glory against the pillow white. Then her father stopped to lay his rough hand down in a loving way. When dream or whisper made her stir, the huskily said John, Not her, not her! The rest is the same. It looks like when this was put on here, two children were squished into one.

This poem is on my top five list. I have been reading this poem since I was a little girl and yet, every time I read it my eyes fill up with tears. I can picture the parents, hand in hand walking through the dark quiet house. Going from bedside to bedside, child to child, trying to choose the one....