LITTLE KINDNESSES by Susan Coolidge

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 15, 1900

LITTLE KINDNESSES.

By Susan Coolidge

If you are toiling up a weary hill, Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear. Straining each nerve untiringly, and still Stumbling, and losing foothold here and there;

And each one passing by would do so much As give one upward lift and go his way, Would not the slight, reiterated touch Of help and kindness lighten all the day?

There is no little and there is no much; We weigh and measure and define in vain; A look, a word, a light, responsive touch Can be the minister of joy to pain.

A man can die of hunger walled in gold: A crumb may quicken hope to stronger breath, And every day we give or we withhold Some little thing that tells for life or death.

— Susan Coolidge.