The Hero's Heart

"When he went from the jail to the gallows, he stooped to kiss a colored child that stood near."

The following lines were written by Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, and sung at the Music Hall, on the twenty-sixth National Anti-Slavery Subscription-Anniversary, Jan. 26, 1860.

A winter sunshine, still and bright, 
The Blue Hills bathed with golden light,
And earth was smiling to the sky.
When calmly he went forth to die.

Infernal passions festered there,
Where peaceful nature looked so fair:
And fiercely, in the morning sun,
Flashed glittering bayonet and gun.

The old man met no friendly eye,
When last he looked on earth and sky:
But one small child, with timed air,
Was gazing on his silver hair.

As that dark brow to his upturned,
The tender heart within him yarned;
And, fondly stooping o'er her face,
He kissed her, for her injured race.

The little one, she knew not why,
That kind old man went forth to die;
Nor why, mid all that pomp and stir,
He stooped to give a kiss to her.

But Jesus smiled that sight to see,
And said, "He did it unto me!"
The golden harps then sweetly rung,
And this the song the angels sung:

"Who loves the poor, doth love the Lord!
Earth cannot dim thy bright reward,
We hover o'er yon gallows high,
And wait to bear thee to the sky."