Let me to-day do something that shall take
   A little sadness from the world's vast store,
And may I be so favored as to make
   Of joy's too scanty sum a little more.
Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
   Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;
Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,
   Or sin by silence when I should defend.
However meager be my worldly wealth
   Let me give something that shall aid my kind,
A word of courage, or a thought of health,
   Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.
Let me to-night look back across the span
   'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say--
Because of some good act to beast or man--
   "The world is better that I lived to-day."