One winter eve a stranger knocked Upon her cottage door. He shivered in the bitter snow And begged to cross her floor. Her husband and two children slept Beside the fire's glow. She flinched beneath his hollow eyes. "You judge my looks? Oh, no." She'd heard the warnings all her life Of things that stalked the night. But leaving one to freeze because Of looks just wasn't right. Oh, bless the heart that opened wide, And never asked where I'd been. While other souls would bar the door, You're the one who let me in. Every kindness that you gave me, All warnings cast aside, Brought me a little closer still To all you loved inside. He thanked her for the roaring hearth, Then gazed above the door. "That horseshoe makes my poor head ache; What hangs it there for?" She took it down. He smiled at her, Then saw the salt below. "Do you really think I'll hurt you so?" She swept it with a "No." Her husband eyed the naked door. She said, "Let me be clear: He hasn't done a thing at all To justify your fears." At dawn the neighbors came to warn, "We know the thing you hide!" The stranger wept, "They want me gone. Will you stand on their side?" She barred the door against her friends: "You're family now!" she cried. Her husband stared; the children froze, As though she'd lost her mind. The stranger sobbed, "They judge my face And not my heart within." She shuttered every window tight And called their doubts a sin. Oh, bless the heart that opened wide, And never asked where I'd been. While other souls would bar the door, You're the one who let me in. Every kindness that you gave me, All warnings cast aside, Brought me a little closer still To all you loved inside. Their pantry emptied, candles dimmed, Their cat was seen no more. The children cried at things that moved Behind their bedroom door. "Mother, please he frightens us!" The stranger said, "A shame. I thought you were unlike the rest— But you're hateful just the same." The mother turned upon her young And snapped "Have you no heart? He needs a home, he needs our love— You'd tear his world apar" The father took the children's hands To flee before the dawn. But where the cottage door had stood, The door was simply gone. The creature's shadow climbed the wall, His smile grew far too wide "Too late to cast me out or run— Your home and family's mine." "You had the chance to shut the door And save your house and kin But fear of seeming cruel made you— THE FOOL WHO LET ME IN! THE FOOL WHO LET ME IN!
