“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.”
Give us this day our daily bread;
Oh! children, when you pray,
And morn and night repeat these words,
Think what it is you say.
You never asked a piece of bread,
And had that wish denied;
For food to eat, and some to spare,
Has always been supplied.
But o’er the ocean, many a cheek
With want grows thin and pale;
And many suffer like the boy
Of whom I tell this tale.
He lay upon some scattered straw,—
His strength was almost gone,—
And, in a feeble voice, he cried,
“Give me three grains of corn!”
Three grains from out his jacket torn,
His trembling mother drew,
’Twas all she had—she gave them him,
Though she was starving too!
Be very grateful, children, then,
For all that you enjoy;
Remembering, as you say those words,
The little Irish boy.