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If I could go back to my home to-night,

Back to the long, low house, when evening light

Just shadowed down to darkness—what would be

My first glad act?  The first thing, I would see

Where mother was—go calling far and near

Through every room, until she answered, “Here!”

Then I would run so fast—I could not wait!

And I would cry: “Has father come? It’s late;

I want you both—I’ve something I must tell.”

(How well do I remember, oh, how well!)

Then father’d come, and after tea, we’d go

Into the quiet room we used to know;

And I would tell them all—the joy, the gain,

Since I had seen them last—the grief, the strain.

And mother’d kiss me, and my father’d smile,

And say: “God’s will is best; just wait a while.”

And both would know—and all things would be right,

If I could go back to my home to-night.

-       Grace Adele Pierce[1]

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[1] In a 1908 biographical sketch, Luther A. Ingersoll wrote: Grace Adele Pierce, a literary woman and lecturer, for six years a resident of Santa Monica, is the daughter of John C. and Marron A. (Pingrey) Pierce, and was born in New York State. She was educated in her native State and in Boston, where she trained for literary work and public speaking. She is an author known on both continents, her poetical work being represented with honor in the Bibliotheque National, Paris. She is the author of two books, The Silver Cord and the Golden Bowl—a volume of poems—and Child Study of the Classics, used in the schools of Boston and introduced as a text-book throughout the state of Massachusetts.

Grace continued to live in California and write; perhaps her most popular volume was a book of poems published in 1920 entitled Come unto Me: Songs of Eternal Life.