Explore "Charity" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Came two young children to their mother's shelf / (One was quite little, and the other big), / And each in freedom calmly helped himself. / (One was a pig.)
The food was free and plenty for them both, / But one was rather dull and very small; / So the big smarter brother, nothing loath, / He took it all.
At which the little fellow raised a yell / Which tired the other's more esthetic ears; / He gave him here a crust, and there a shell / To stop his tears.
He gave with pride, in manner calm and bland, / Finding the other's hunger a delight; / He gave with piety-his full left hand / Hid from his right.
He gave and gave-O blessed Charity! / How sweet and beautiful a thing it is! / How fine to see that big boy giving free / What is not his!