If We Only Knew

A careless nurse girl allowing the child to wander away, made the mother realize the poignancy of the little verse: “If we knew the baby’s fingers / Pressed against the window pane / Would be cold and stiff tomorrow, / Never trouble us again, / Would the bright eyes of our darling / catch the frown upon our brow, / Would the prints of rosy fingers, / Vex us then as they do now?” But a higher destiny watched the child and saw it safely home.