Explore "Grandfather" by Annie Fellows Johnston on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HOW broad and deep was the fireplace old, / And the great hearth-stone how wide! / There was always room for the old man's chair / By the cosy chimney side, / And all the children that cared to crowd / At his knee in the evening-tide.
Room for all of the homeless ones / Who had nowhere else to go; / They might bask at ease in the grateful warmth / And sun in the cheerful glow, / For Grandfather's heart was as wide and warm / As the old fireplace, I know.
And he always found at his well-spread board / Just room for another chair; / There was always rest for another head / On the pillow of his care; / There was always place for another name / In his trustful morning prayer.
Oh, crowded world with your jostling throngs! / How narrow you grow, and small; / How cold, like a shadow across the heart, / Your selfishness seems to fall, / When I think of that fireplace warm and wide, / And the welcome awaiting all.