That every loss and lapse may gain
The clear-aired heights by steps of pain,
And never cross is borne in vain.
1880.



A NAME

Addressed to my grand-nephew, Greenleaf Whittier Pickard. Jonathan
Greenleaf, in A Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family, says briefly:
"From all that can be gathered, it is believed that the ancestors
of the Greenleaf family were Huguenots, who left France on account
of their religious principles some time in the course of the
sixteenth century, and settled in England. The name was probably
translated from the French Feuillevert."

The name the Gallic exile bore,
St. Malo! from thy ancient mart,
Became upon our Western shore
Greenleaf for Feuillevert.

A name to hear in soft accord
Of leaves by light winds overrun,
Or read, upon the greening sward
Of May, in shade and sun.

The name my infant ear first heard
Breathed softly with a mother's kiss;