Only a visiting teacher

"I am only a visiting teacher," she said, and her head hung low,
"I’m really not very important: I guess I’ll not even go"
"I’m sure that no one will miss me, no one will even care.
I’ll see to my own work today, instead of going there."
So she hurried around all day, her chores all done at last;
then she stopped to rest for a moment, she sat in her chair and napped.
And scarce had her eyelids fluttered, before a vision came to her sight.
And standing there before her, was a personage clothed in white.
She saw in his hands the nails prints, his brow where thorns had lain,
His side where the sword had pierced it, his face with its look of pain.
"I gave you some work to do", it seemed she heard him say,
"You thought it of no importance. You stayed at home today."
"You did not deliver my message, You did not feed my sheep
The house you swept and polished, and stayed at home to sleep."
"Oh master," she cried, "Forgive I pray, That I should fail to see
That had I done it unto the least of these, I would have done it unto thee."
Mildred W. Burton