"DOES IT PAY?"

If one poor burdened toiler o'er life's road,
    Who meets us by the way,
Goes on less conscious of his galling load,
    Then life, indeed, does pay.

If we can show one troubled heart the gain
    That lies alway in loss,
Why, then, we too, are paid for all the pain
    Of bearing life's hard cross.

If some despondent soul to hope is stirred,
    Some sad lip made to smile,
By any act of ours, or any word,
    Then, life has been worth while.

Poems of Power by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Chicago : W. B. Conkey, 1902.


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