When you are leaving home,

And give the day a lighter heart

Into the week to roam.

Leave kind words as mementoes

To be handled and caressed,

And watch the noon-time hour arrive

In gold and tinsel dressed.

Speak kindly in the evening!

When on the walk is heard

A tired footstep that you know,

Speak one refreshing word,

And see the glad light springing

From the heart into the eye,

As sometimes from behind a cloud

A star leaps to the sky.

Speak kindly to the children

That crowd around your chair,

The tender lips that lean on yours

Kiss, smooth the flaxen hair;

Some day a room that’s lonesome

The little ones may own,

And home be empty as the nest

From which the birds have flown.

Speak kindly to the stranger

Who passes through the town,

A loving word is light of weight—

Not so would prove a frown.

One is a precious jewel

The heart would grasp in sleep,

The other like a demon’s gift

The memory loathes to keep.

Speak kindly to the sorrowful

Who stand beside the dead,

The heart can lean against a word

Though thorny seems the bed.

And oh, to those discouraged

Who faint upon the way,

Stop, stop—if just a moment—

And something kindly say.

Speak kindly to the fallen ones,

Your voice may help them rise;

A word right-spoken oft unclasps

The gate beyond the skies.

Speak kindly, and the future

You’ll find God looking through!

Speak of another as you’d have

Him always speak of you.