I Must Be Fit

I'll tell you honestly, there's nothing I want more than to succeed at home. It's a desire I hear reverberating in the following poem, also written by Edgar Guest.

I must be fit for a child to follow,scorning the places where loose men wallow;knowing how much he shall learn from me,I must be fair as I'd have him be.

I must come home to him day by day,clean as the morning I went away.I must be fit for a child's glad greeting;his are eyes that there is no cheating.

He must behold me in every test,not at my worst but my very best;he must be proud when my life is doneto have men know that he is my son.