The Smile Beneath the Bonnet
From Sawiki
The smile beneath the bonnet lifts the honour of the flag
Makes universal language to well-favoured or the hag!
An open door to hearts that beat 'neath cotton, silk or rag!
A smile can lift a fallen heart to face another day;
Make rays of sunshine to relieve the shadow of the grey:
And the smile beneath the bonnet shows a wanderer the way.
Upon a railway platform once, a group of bonnets were;
Some small replicas of the flag, and happy smiles were there;
With consecrated zeal, and youthful spirit in the air.
For these were happy messengers, just newly trained to take
Their mission, with its message of a saving power to make
All men the family of God, for His own dear Son's sake.
Among the railway staff engaged on duties of the hour;
One watched the happy travellers and sensed a secret power;
Might he not find the source that could so generously endower:
Not thus the first time he had mused 'mid horrors of the war,
This kind of face he oft had seen and wondered whence the store
Of brightness 'mid the sadness that these Army people bore.
He asked the meaning of the flag-really that he might know,
Heading to full confession of the thing which puzzled so,
And of his longing to be good, his faults seemed more to grow.
The smilers 'neath the bonnets, just as quick to pray as sing,
Heedless oftime or place if they a soul to Christ might bring,
gladly and truly led him to the source whence true joys spring.
And when those happy travellers went their appointed ways,
The happy porter, left behind, echoed their song of praise,
And little flag was left with him to cherish all his days.
The smile kept 'neath the bonnet, and the secret of the smile!
Adorning thus the spirit it is never out of style;
And a smile that bears the message winneth all, though lost and vile.
Ida Russell
