September, 1915

“A Tribute to Mrs. Ellsworth

Thou wouldst be loved?

Then let thy heart

From its present pathway part not

Being everything which now thy art but

Nothing which thou art not

And thus thy quiet ways, thy grace

Thy more than beauty

Will ever be a theme of praise

And love a simple duty.”

Anna Barnes

That ‘but’ on the end of line 4 doesn’t seem to scan well, but what do I know! I can’t figure out who Anna Barnes was, there is a middle name but the initial is illegible.  The Mrs. Ellsworth would have been Helen Yale.  I must say that our standards of literacy seem to have dropped if that is the sort of thing one casually jots down in a guestbook….