---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - McDonough, H. C.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 3
published: 1917-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'H. C. McDonough, "Lost—A Little Child: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 3 (January 1917): 222–223.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2003unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2003unse
start_page: 222
end_page: 223
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2003unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Lost—A Little Child: A Poem

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—

222                           IMPROVEMENT ERA

of the great men of the world have come to the front and have
left behind them an inspiration and an example.
       If   our character is firm, the motive pure and strong, the
will determined, we are in the line of truth; we have but to go
straight forward and be true to ourselves and our fellowmen.
This certainty of being in the right path which comes of a high
aim and the will to carry it out for the good of all, not only of
self   —
       is of itself a wonderful power. It is not easy of attainment,
for it rests upon a living consciousness of the presence of God in
all things and events and faith in our union with him.
     As J. G. Holland says, "Character must stand behind, and
                            —
back up, everything the sermon, the poem, the picture, the
play. None of them is worth a straw without it."
Sugar City, Idaho

                           Lost   — a Little Girl
                 Has any one seen a dear little girl
                   With a smile on her sunny face?
                 I've   looked for her in her favorite haunts,
                   But find her not in the place;
                 I've peered in the face of each little child,
                   As I've passed along on the street;
                 I've listened to   hear her merry laugh
                    Among the children I meet.
                 Her dolly is just where she left it last,
                   Her clothing still hangs in the hall,
                 And, though I have searched for her everywhere,
                   She does not answer my call!
                 Oh, help me to find her, won't you please,
                   That I may soon look on her face,
                 That this pain in my heart shall cease at last,
                    When I clasp her in fond embrace.
                 She came last night to me in a dream,
                   With the light of God on her face;
                 And I knew my darling was safe, at last,
                   In that bright and glorious place
                 Where pain and death can never more come,
                   And grief is all banished away
                 In that beautiful "Home not made with hands,"
                   Where it ever is glorious day.
                                                     H. C. McDonough

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                                  The