NAOMI'S QUESTION TO RUTH.
By Whiting Bancroft
"WHERE hast thou gleaned to-day?"
'Tis a voice of the olden time,
Awakening echoes from far away,
To surge in a solemn chime. "Where hast thou gleaned to-day?"
Bring the searching question home;
The distant hills are growing gray
In the gathering night shade's gloom. "Where hast thou gleaned to-day?"
The harvest indeed is great;
The Lord of the harvest pray;
The fields for the gleaners wait. "Where hast thou gleaned to-day?"
Hast thou followed those who reap?
Or do the fields by thy delay
Their scattered stalks still keep? "Where hast thou gleaned to-day?"
Hast thou sat with folded hands,
Or idly loitered by the way,
Aloof from the reaper bands? The fields stretch far and wide,
And before we kneel to pray,
May we ask at each eventide,
"Where have I gleaned to-day?"
—Selected.