A Day's Secret
From The Christian Union (23:4), January 26, 1881.
DEAR friend, to-day was dull and hot and long,
And everybody grumbled at the weather --
There never was such heat and dust together;
Yet I was listening to the sweetest song:
I did not care if everything went wrong.
And no one knew it was our holiday,
For they would have thought that you are far away.
I do not know if I have said your name.
Were I alone or in some busy throng,
Idle or hurried all the summer hours,
We should have been together just the same:
Your thoughts have come to me like fairest flowers,
And no one knew our hearts kept lovingly
The day that is so dear to you and me.
Manuscript transcription
Dear friend, today was dull and hot and long
And every body grumbled at the weather.
There never was such heat and dust together;
-- But I was listening to the sweetest song.
I did not care if every thing went wrong --
And no one knew it was our holiday.
They would have said that you are far away.
Were I alone or in some busy throng,
Idle or hurried all the summer hours
We should have been together just the same,
Your thoughts have come to me like fairest flowers.
And no one knew our hearts kept lovingly
The day that is so dear to you and me.[The next appears to be a rejected part.]
That holiday will dearer still
Seem to us both when far apart.
And I am glad because we found
A harbour in each other's heart! --Reprinted from MS Am 1745.24 (1) by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
There are a couple parts to this. I've transcribed only what I think is the fair copy that begins with this title.
Edited and transcribed by Terry Heller, Coe College, 2015.