The Kindly Father

He was a kindly father who granted every plea,
He gave his boy the toy he asked, whatever it might be,
He could not bear to see a tear come to the youngster's eye.
Because he loved the youngster so he never let him cry.

He shielded him from every hurt, he shielded him from pain;
He drove the little lad to school and drove him home again,
And when his sums were difficult and troublesome to do,
To save his boy from worrying, the father worked them through.

He planned the little fellow's day, and as the years went by
He carried every care for him until he came to die,
And oh! that son was helpless then, unused to toil or strife,
He'd neither strength nor wit with which to face the tasks of life.

Perhaps the father of us all, Who hears our every plea
Permits our burdens to remain that stronger we may be,
And though at times he pities us, 'twere better in the end
That we should learn to stand alone and on ourselves depend.

By Edgar A. Guest (1930)