The Boy Samuel by Ruth Collie — Read

He must have been a lonely little boy. The cold stone Temple for a / nursery floor, and the Sanctuary Lamp for a glittering toy, and a / Tamarix tree by the Temple door. (A Tamarix tree with scarcely a / leaf to comfort a homesick child in his grief.) No woman's lips on / his baby face; no woman's arms to hug him tight. Who put his / sandals, each night, in place, and hung up his ephod, small and / white? (Sometimes, I fear, when the old priest slept, the little / child Samuel wept and wept.) What did he think, when once a year, / Hannah, the mother, with love-lit eyes, held him close and whispered, / "Dear! See, I have brought my babe a prize," and gave him a coat / that she had made (I hope it was cut of rich brocade! ) I hope it had / friendly birds and flow'rs, embroidered in threads of blue and gold, / playmates for his long, lonely hours in the silent Temple dim and / cold. With such a coat to wear and touch -- he might not miss his / mother much.