When I come home at close of day I like to watch the children play. Whatever load I have to bear, There is abundant payment there For all my labor. 'Tis to hear The laugh of children, 'tis to know, What night may come, what winds may blow, The little children need not fear. When I come home, my labor o'er, I like to pause outside the door Before I enter, hear the hymn The good-wife hums. Cathedrals dim Have never heard as sweet an air As sings the good-wife setting food Upon the table for her brood, Secure from want and safe from care. When I come home -- but fathers' eyes Must look beyond the sunlit skies. When I come home I want to know, What night may come, what winds may blow, They are protected. Dawn or gloam, I want to know that, come what will, The wife and child are sheltered still, If I some night should not come home. |