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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:06:48 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:06:48 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19892-h.zip b/19892-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..478e04a --- /dev/null +++ b/19892-h.zip diff --git a/19892-h/19892-h.htm b/19892-h/19892-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9731308 --- /dev/null +++ b/19892-h/19892-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2806 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Silver Crown, by Laura E. Richards. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + <!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + p.titleblock {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent: 0; text-align: center;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; border:1px solid white; + padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; + color: #444; background-color: #EEE;} + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + td.pr {padding-right:10px;} + hr.full {width:100%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.major {width:75%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor {width:30%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; + font-size: 90% } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Silver Crown, by Laura E. Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Silver Crown + Another Book of Fables + +Author: Laura E. Richards + +Release Date: November 21, 2006 [EBook #19892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SILVER CROWN *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<table width='400' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='' border='1'><tr><td> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 220%; margin-top: 50px;'> THE</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 220%; margin-bottom: 70px;'> SILVER CROWN</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 120%; margin-bottom: 50px;'><i>Another Book of Fables</i></p> +<p class='titleblock'> BY</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='margin-bottom: 30px;'> LAURA E. RICHARDS</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 80%;'> Author of "Captain January," "The Golden Windows,"</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 120px;'> "The Joyous Story of Toto," etc.</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 80%;'> BOSTON</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 80%;'> LITTLE, BROWN, AND</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 80%;'> COMPANY</p> +<p class='titleblock' style='font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 50px;'> 1919</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p class='center'>[transcriber note: <a href="images/img003.jpg">original decorative cover image</a>]</p> +<hr class='major' /> + +<p class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1906,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Printers<br /> +<span class="smcap">S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston</span>, U. S. A.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p class='center'> +<span class="smcap">To my Sister</span><br /> +<br /> +MAUD HOWE ELLIOTT<br /> +</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div style='text-align:center;'> + <table style='margin:auto;' summary='A Winter Thought'> + <tr><td style='text-align:center;'>A WINTER THOUGHT</td></tr> + <tr><td> + <p> + <i>Hast thou e'er a grief, dear?<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lock it in thy heart!</span><br /> + Keep it, close it,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sacred and apart;</span><br /> + Lest another, at thy sigh,<br /> + Hear his sorrow stir and cry.<br /> + Wakeful watch doth sorrow keep:<br /> + Hush it! hide it! bid it sleep!<br /> + <br /> + Hast thou e'er a joy, love?<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bind it on thy brow!</span><br /> + Vaunt it, flaunt it, <br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">All the world to know.</span><br /> + Where the shade lies dim and gray,<br /> + Turn its glad and heartsome ray.<br /> + Does thy sad-browed neighbor smile?<br /> + So thy life was worth the while!</i></p> + </td></tr> + </table> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<div class="smcap"> +<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<col style="width:85%;" /> +<col style="width:15%;" /> +<tr><td align="left">THE SILVER CROWN</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_SILVER_CROWN">0</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE GRUMPY SAINT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_GRUMPY_SAINT">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE HOUSEKEEPER</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_HOUSEKEEPER">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">BROTHER BARNABAS</td><td align="right"><a href="#BROTHER_BARNABAS">12</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE FATES</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_FATES">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE STEPS</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_STEPS">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE GLASS</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_GLASS">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IN THE SHADED ROOM</td><td align="right"><a href="#IN_THE_SHADED_ROOM">21</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">HELL GATE</td><td align="right"><a href="#HELL_GATE">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE THORN</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_THORN">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE SERPENT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_SERPENT">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IF THIS SHOULD BE</td><td align="right"><a href="#IF_THIS_SHOULD_BE_I">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE FEAST</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_FEAST">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE SPIRIT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_SPIRIT">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE ROOTS</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_ROOTS">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">ALONG THE WAY</td><td align="right"><a href="#ALONG_THE_WAY">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE GRAVE DIGGERS</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_GRAVE_DIGGERS">42</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE SICK CHILD</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_SICK_CHILD">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">AT LONG LAST</td><td align="right"><a href="#AT_LONG_LAST">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">GILLYFLOWER GENTLEMAN</td><td align="right"><a href="#GILLYFLOWER_GENTLEMAN">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE JUDGMENT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_JUDGMENT">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BLIND CHILD</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BLIND_CHILD">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE CAKE</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_CAKE">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE SERMON</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_SERMON">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE TANGLED SKEIN</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_TANGLED_SKEIN">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE NURSLING</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_NURSLING">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">WORMWOOD</td><td align="right"><a href="#WORMWOOD">67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE PIT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_PIT">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">HOSPITALITY</td><td align="right"><a href="#HOSPITALITY">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE POT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_POT">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BODY</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BODY">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE RULER.</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_RULER.">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE TORCH-BEARER</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_TORCH-BEARER">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE STONE BLOCKS</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_STONE_BLOCKS">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE POTTER</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_POTTER">85</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE NEIGHBOUR</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_NEIGHBOUR">87</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE WOUND</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_WOUND">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE WHITE FIRE</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_WHITE_FIRE_I">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">FOR YOU AND ME</td><td align="right"><a href="#FOR_YOU_AND_ME">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE PICTURE BOOK</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_PICTURE_BOOK">98</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE FLOWER OF JOY</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_FLOWER_OF_JOY">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BURNING HOUSE</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_BURNING_HOUSE">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE PLANT</td><td align="right"><a href="#THE_PLANT">104</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> +<hr class='major' /> + +<h1>THE SILVER CROWN</h1> + +<h2><i>A BOOK OF FABLES</i></h2> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span> +<a name="THE_SILVER_CROWN" id="THE_SILVER_CROWN"></a> +<h2>THE SILVER CROWN</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 104px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-001" id="illus-001"></a> +<img src='images/img011.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '104' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>"And shall I be a king?" asked the child, "and shall I wear a crown?"</p> + +<p>"You shall surely wear a crown," said the Angel, "and a kingdom is +waiting for you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, joy!" said the child. "But tell me, how will it come about? for now +I am only a little child, and the crown would hardly stay on my curls."</p> + +<p>"Nay! that I may not tell," said the Angel. "Only ride and run your +best, for the way is long to your kingdom, and the time short."</p> + +<p>So the child rode and ran his best, crossing hills and valleys, broad +streams and foaming torrents. Here and there he saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> people at work or +at play, and on these he looked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, when they see me," he said, "they will run to meet me, and +will crown me with a golden crown, and lead me to their palace and +throne me there as king!"</p> + +<p>But the folk were all busy with their tasks or their sport, and none +heeded him, or left their business for him; and still he must fare +forward alone, for the Way called him.</p> + +<p>Also, he came upon many travellers like himself, some coming toward him, +others passing him by. On these, too, he looked earnestly, and would +stop now one, now another, and question him.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he asked, "of any kingdom in these parts where the crown +is ready and the folk wait for a king?"</p> + +<p>Then one would laugh, and another weep, and another jeer, but all alike +shook their heads.</p> + +<p>"I am seeking crown and kingdom for myself," cried one; "is it likely +that I can be finding one for you, too? Each one for himself, and the +Way for all!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span></p> + +<p>Another said: "You seek in vain. There are no crowns, only fools' caps +with asses' ears and bells that jingle in them."</p> + +<p>But others, and these they who had been longest on the way, only looked +on him, some sadly, some kindly, and made no answer; and still he fared +onward, for the Way called him.</p> + +<p>Now and then he stopped to help some poor soul who had fallen into +trouble, and when he did that the way lightened before him, and he felt +the heart light within him; but at other times the hurry was strong on +him, so that he would turn away his face, and shut his ears to the cries +that rang in them; and when he did that, the way darkened, and +oftentimes he stumbled himself, and fell into pits and quagmires, and +must cry for help, sometimes on those to whom he had refused it.</p> + +<p>By and by he forgot about the crown and the kingdom; or if he thought of +them, it was but as a far-off dream of dim gold, such as one sees at +morning when the sun breaks through the mist. But still he knew that the +way was long and the time short, and still he rode and ran his best.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span></p> + +<p>At the last he was very weary, and his feet could carry him no further, +when, looking up, he saw that the way came to an end before him, and +there was a gate, and one in white sitting by it, who beckoned to him. +Trembling, yet glad, the child drew near, and knew the Angel who had +spoken to him at the beginning.</p> + +<p>"Welcome!" said the Angel, "you come in good time. And what of the Way?"</p> + +<p>"I came as fast as I could," said the child, "but many things hindered +me, and now I am weary, and can go no further."</p> + +<p>"But what did you find on the way?" asked the Angel.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I found joy and sorrow," said the child, "good measure of both; but +never a crown, such as you promised me, and never a kingdom."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, foolish child," said the Angel. "You are wearing your crown. +It is of purest silver, and shines like white frost; and as for your +kingdom, the name of it is Rest, and here the entrance to it."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_GRUMPY_SAINT" id="THE_GRUMPY_SAINT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> +<h2>THE GRUMPY SAINT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 102px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-002" id="illus-002"></a> +<img src='images/img015.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '102' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>Once upon a time there was a Grumpy Saint, who thought that all the +world were sinners, himself included. He lived in a little cabin by the +roadside, and his life was a burden to him on account of the passers-by.</p> + +<p>They gave him no peace. Now it was a poor man asking for food.</p> + +<p>"Go along with you!" said the Grumpy Saint. "It is an abomination to +feed sturdy beggars like you."</p> + +<p>And he gave the man his dinner, and went hungry.</p> + +<p>Again, it was an old woman, creeping along the road, bent double under a +heavy burden.</p> + +<p>"Shame on you!" said the Grumpy Saint. "Why are you not at home, +tending<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> your fire, instead of gadding along the road in this fashion?"</p> + +<p>And he took the burden, and carried it all the way to the woman's house, +and came back grumbling.</p> + +<p>Still again it was a child, who had lost its way and came crying to his +door.</p> + +<p>"Please take me home!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"You should not have come out!" said the Saint. "Where is your home?"</p> + +<p>"Miles away!" said the child. "And I am tired; please carry me!"</p> + +<p>"Stuff and nonsense!" said the Saint. "Don't talk to me!"</p> + +<p>And he wrapped the child in his own coat (for it was winter), and +carried him miles through the snow to his home; and then trudged back +again, but without the coat, for the folk were poor.</p> + +<p>And so it went on.</p> + +<p>One day the Grumpy Saint died, and went to Heaven, a place in which he +had never believed. As he entered that country, the first person he met +was an Angel, with a bright gold aureole round her head, and in her hand +a staff of lilies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span></p> + +<p>"Welcome!" said the Angel. "Welcome, dear and great saint! I am sent to +greet you, and lead you to the feast that is making in your honor."</p> + +<p>"Some mistake!" said the Grumpy Saint. "I don't know what you are +talking about, and I don't like play-acting. What place is this?"</p> + +<p>"This is Heaven!" said the Angel.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said the Saint. "I don't believe in Heaven."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you <i>are</i> in it," said the Angel, "which is of more +consequence."</p> + +<p>"And who may you be?" asked the Saint. "I seem to know your face."</p> + +<p>"Yes!" said the Angel. "I am the old woman you helped with the burden; +don't you remember? the rest are waiting inside, all the people whom you +loved and helped. Come with me!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you are talking about!" said the Saint. "But if I am +to go with you, first take off that ridiculous object on your head! I +don't like play-acting, I tell you, and I have never believed in this +kind of thing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span></p> + +<p>The Angel smiled; and leading him to a clear pool that lay beside the +road, bade him look in. He looked, and saw two white-clad figures +bending over the water, and round the head of each the shining circle.</p> + +<p>"Bless my soul!" cried the Grumpy Saint. "I've got one too!"</p> + +<p>"To be sure!" said the Angel.</p> + +<p>"Preposterous!" said the Grumpy Saint.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_HOUSEKEEPER" id="THE_HOUSEKEEPER"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> +<h2>THE HOUSEKEEPER</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-003" id="illus-003"></a> +<img src='images/img019.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>One day Love went to and fro in his house, looked from door and window, +and had no rest.</p> + +<p>"I am weary," he said, "of this little house. Strait are the walls of +it, and narrow the windows, and from them always the same things to see. +I must be free; I must fly, or of what use are my wings?"</p> + +<p>So he took his red robe about him and flew out, leaving door and window +streaming wide to the cold wind.</p> + +<p>But when he was gone came one in a little gown of green, (green for +hope, Sweetheart; green for hope!) and entered the house, and shut door +and window; swept the hearth clean and mended the fire, and then set +herself down and sang, and minded her seam. Ever when the flame burned +low she built it up, and now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> and then she looked out of window to see +if any one were coming; but mostly she sat and sang, and kept the house +tidy and warm.</p> + +<p>Now by and by Love was weary with flying hither and yon; cold he was, +too, and night coming on; and as the dusk fell, he saw a light shining +bright on the edge of the wold.</p> + +<p>"Where there is light there will be warmth!" said Love; and he flew +near, and saw that it was his own little house.</p> + +<p>"Oh! who keeps my house alight?" cried Love.</p> + +<p>He opened the door, and the air came warm to greet him.</p> + +<p>"Oh! who keeps my house warm?" cried Love. And he looked, and saw one in +a little gown of green, (green for hope, Sweetheart; oh! green for +hope!) mending the fire, and singing as she worked.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, who keep my house?" asked Love.</p> + +<p>"Kindness is my name!" said the little housekeeper.</p> + +<p>"Outside it is cold and empty," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> Love, "and the wind blows over the +waste; may I come in and warm me by the fire?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! and welcome!" said Kindness. "It was for you I kept it."</p> + +<p>"My red robe is torn and draggled," said Love. "May I wrap me in the +gown you are making?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! and welcome," said Kindness. "It is for you it was making, and now +it is finished."</p> + +<p>Love bent over the fire and warmed his poor cold hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he cried; "now that I am back in my house I would never leave it +again. But what of my wings, lest they put the flight in me once more?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose I clip them," said Kindness, "with my little scissors!"</p> + +<p>"How are your scissors called, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Peace-and-Comfort is their name!" said Kindness.</p> + +<p>So Kindness clipped the wings of Love; and this one swept the hearth, +and that one mended the fire, and all went well while they kept the +house together.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="BROTHER_BARNABAS" id="BROTHER_BARNABAS"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +<h2>BROTHER BARNABAS</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 101px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-004" id="illus-004"></a> +<img src='images/img022.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '101' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>One came to Brother Barnabas seeking consolation.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the good Brother. "My heart bleeds for you. You are in +affliction, bereft of some one dearer, it may be, than life itself. My +sympathy—"</p> + +<p>"No!" said the man. "My friends, such as they are, are all living."</p> + +<p>"I see!" said Brother Barnabas. "Bodily pain has set its sharp tooth in +you; that is indeed hard to bear. Let me—"</p> + +<p>"No!" said the man. "I am in good health, so far as that goes."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said Brother Barnabas. "My poor brother, then it is sin that +weighs upon you, the cruellest burden of all. Truly, I grieve for you."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" said the man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> "I have never broken a commandment in +my life."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Brother Barnabas. "I begin to perceive—"</p> + +<p>"I was sure you would!" said the man. "I am misunderstood—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Not by me!</i>" said Brother Barnabas. "Begone!" and he shut the door on +him.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_FATES" id="THE_FATES"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> +<h2>THE FATES</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-005" id="illus-005"></a> +<img src='images/img024.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '100'/> +</div> + +<p>The high Fates sat weaving, weaving at their loom, and I, poor soul, +came crying at the door, asking a boon at their hands.</p> + +<p>Those great ladies did not turn their heads, nor stint the flying +shuttle; but one of them spoke, and she the youngest, and her voice was +like the wind over the sea.</p> + +<p>"What would you?" she said.</p> + +<p>And I said, "That which you had of me yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Is it your sin, that turned your cup blood red?"</p> + +<p>"Nay; for I drained the cup, and washed it clean with my tears."</p> + +<p>"Is it your sorrow, that changed the green world to black about you?"</p> + +<p>"Nay; for I wrapped me in it as in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> mantle, and now I should go cold +without it."</p> + +<p>"What then?" she asked; and ever as she spoke, back and forth, back and +forth, the shuttle flew.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what but my blunder! when I would make a path for my Love's white +feet, and set instead a snare for them, to her hurt?"</p> + +<p>Then those high ladies spoke all together; cold, sweet, steadfast were +the voices of them, and the shuttle humming through.</p> + +<p>"Even now the shuttle is threaded with your fault, and naught may stay +its way. Go, poor soul, empty and crying as you came; yet take one +comfort with you. Even of this, even of this, the Web had need!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_STEPS" id="THE_STEPS"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> +<h2>THE STEPS</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 130px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-006" id="illus-006"></a> +<img src='images/img026.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '130' height = '96'/> +</div> + +<p>"When you come to the city, seek out the House of Wisdom, for it is the +best house, and there you shall do well."</p> + +<p>That was what the old people said to the boy when he started on his +journey, and he kept the saying well in mind.</p> + +<p>"How shall I know the house?" he had asked them; and they answered, "By +the look of the steps before the door, and by the number of people who +go in and out. More we may not tell you."</p> + +<p>The boy pondered these sayings as he journeyed.</p> + +<p>"It will be a fine house, no doubt," he said. "I shall know it by its +size and splendor; but as for what they said of the steps, I make little +of that part."</p> + +<p>By and by he came to the city, and looked about him eagerly for the +House of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> Wisdom. Presently, on his right, he saw a house of plain yet +stately aspect. Clear were its windows and high, and from one a face +looked at him of a reverend man, calm and kind.</p> + +<p>"Might that be Wisdom?" thought the boy. Then he looked at the steps, +and saw them high and steep, and shining white, as if they had little +use. The door stood open wide, but few came or went through it.</p> + +<p>"This cannot be the House of Wisdom!" said the boy. "I must seek +farther."</p> + +<p>So he went farther. And presently he saw on his left a house rich and +gay of aspect, shining with gold, and all the windows flung up to the +air; and from one window a face of a fair woman laughed on him, and +beckoned, and waved a tinsel scarf with bells that tinkled sweetly on +his ear.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the boy, "if this might but be the House of Wisdom! but what +of the steps before the door?"</p> + +<p>He looked at the steps; and they were wide and shallow, and trodden into +holes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> and valleys by many feet; and up those steps, and through the +open door, a throng was constantly passing, laughing and singing, and +pelting one another with flowers and spangles.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the boy, "this is, indeed, the House of Wisdom! for true it +is that I can tell by the steps, and by the people who go in and out."</p> + +<p>And he entered the House of Folly.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_GLASS" id="THE_GLASS"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> +<h2>THE GLASS</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 101px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-007" id="illus-007"></a> +<img src='images/img029.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '101' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>"This is extremely interesting!" said the man. "You say that I am not +one being but many, and that your glass will show me my component parts +as separate entities?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely!" said the Wandering Magician.</p> + +<p>The man looked in the glass.</p> + +<p>"Here I see several beings!" he said. "Some of them are +distinguished-looking, that one on horseback, for example, and the one +with the lyre. But others have a frivolous air, and there is one with +positively a low expression; and yet he is attractive too, when I look +closer, and I seem to know him. What are these creatures?"</p> + +<p>"These are your tastes!" said the Wandering Magician.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the man. "Well, some of them are certainly elegant and +refined. But whom have we here? what strange pigmies are these?"</p> + +<p>"Your virtues!" said the Magician.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said the man. "Yes, to be sure, I recognize them. But what +makes them so small?"</p> + +<p>"This is not a magnifying glass!" said the Magician.</p> + +<p>"But they are pretty!" said the man. "Beautiful, I may say. That little +fellow with the twinkle in his eye and his coat out at elbows; he is +charming, if I do say it. But what is going on now? here comes a crowd +of big, hulking, ruffianly fellows, jostling the little people and +driving them to the wall. What a villainous-looking set! Their faces are +wholly strange to me; what are they?"</p> + +<p>"Your vices!" said the Wandering Magician.</p> + +<p>But when the man would have fallen upon him, he was gone.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="IN_THE_SHADED_ROOM" id="IN_THE_SHADED_ROOM"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> +<h2>IN THE SHADED ROOM</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-008" id="illus-008"></a> +<img src='images/img031.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '105'/> +</div> + +<p>The shaded room was still; the doctor and the nurse sat watching by the +bedside; the firelight crept into the corners and whispered to the +shadows: there was no other sound.</p> + +<p>"You think you are ready to go?" asked the Angel-who-attends-to-things.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" said the man. "I have drained the Cup from brim to bitter lees; I +have read the Book from cover to cover. I am ready."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "Well, come along!" and +he led the man out, but did not shut the door after him.</p> + +<p>The man had lived in state and splendor, and he had thought that some +ceremony would attend his departure, but there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> nothing of the sort. +The only change was, that as he went along the Angel seemed to be +growing very tall, and he very little, so that he had to reach up to +hold the strong white hand, and his feet were well-nigh taken from under +him by the sweep of the great white robes; also he felt afraid and +foolish, he knew not why.</p> + +<p>So they came at last to a gate, through which many children were passing +with glad faces, carrying tablets of amber and pearl; and beside the +gate sat another Angel, writing in a book; and when a child passed in, +this Angel nodded and smiled to him, and wrote a word in his book.</p> + +<p>Now the Angel of the Gate looked up, and saw the +Angel-who-attends-to-things, and beside him the man, holding fast to his +hand, and feeling afraid and foolish.</p> + +<p>"From the Primary Department?" asked the Angel of the Gate.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" said the other, who never wasted words.</p> + +<p>The Angel of the Gate looked the man over carefully. "His hands are +dirty!" he said at length.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things; "he has not learned to keep +them clean."</p> + +<p>"And there is mud on his feet!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he will walk in the mire."</p> + +<p>"And his clothes are torn, and stained with blood."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he has been quarrelling with his brother and beating him."</p> + +<p>At this the man found his voice and cried out, though he felt more +afraid and foolish than ever, and his voice sounded high and thin, like +that of a tiny child.</p> + +<p>"I have no brother!" said the man.</p> + +<p>The two Angels looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"You see!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "I knew how it would +be."</p> + +<p>Then he turned to the man. "Run along back," he said, "and try to do +better next time. I left the door open for you."</p> + +<p>And in the shaded room, while the firelight whispered to the shadows in +the corners, the doctor rose from the bedside, and spoke softly to the +nurse.</p> + +<p>"The crisis is past," he said, "he will live."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="HELL_GATE" id="HELL_GATE"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> +<h2>HELL GATE</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-009" id="illus-009"></a> +<img src='images/img034.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '123'/> +</div> + +<p>Hell Gate clanged behind the youth, and those without stood and looked +one upon another.</p> + +<p>First came his friend, and said to the keeper of the gate:</p> + +<p>"Let him out! he is young, and his work still to do. Who knows but he +may amend, and do it yet?"</p> + +<p>Next came his Love, and clasped the bars, and wept upon them.</p> + +<p>"Let him out!" she cried. "We are too young to die, and without him I +cannot live."</p> + +<p>Last came his mother, for she had a long way to come.</p> + +<p>"What is all this ado?" she said. "Let me in to him!" and she broke the +bars and entered.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_THORN" id="THE_THORN"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> +<h2>THE THORN</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 101px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-010" id="illus-010"></a> +<img src='images/img035.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '101' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>When the youth started, he passed through the Forbidden Wood, and +wandered there, plucking and tasting the fruit, smelling the flowers, +evil and sweet; and as he plucked and smelled, it chanced that a thorn +entered his breast, for it lay open. He took little heed, for he was +young, and the life strong in him; so the thorn made its way in, and +presently was buried in the flesh; and he forgot it, for it gave him no +hurt.</p> + +<p>By and by he came out of that wood, and shook the dust of it from his +feet, and set his face toward the mountains, for a voice told him that +there he should find his life and his Love. And so it fell, for as he +fared on, his Love came to meet him, and he knew her, and she him. Then +each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> held out arms of longing, and embraced the other tenderly, +speaking fond words; but when the maiden pressed her arms about the man, +a pang shot through his breast, bitter as death; and he trembled, for he +knew it for the piercing of the thorn.</p> + +<p>The man set his teeth, that he might make no outcry, and then he looked +at his Love: and see! she was snow-pale, and held her heart with both +hands, as if in pain.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" cried the man. "What hurts my Love?" and she answered, "I +know not; a pang shot through my heart, bitter as death."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Love, what like was the pang?" cried the man; and heard her words +before she spoke; for she said, "Like the piercing of a thorn!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_SERPENT" id="THE_SERPENT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> +<h2>THE SERPENT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-011" id="illus-011"></a> +<img src='images/img037.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '106'/> +</div> + +<p>Three boys were playing together in a field; and as they played, one +passing by called to them: "Beware! in the corner of that field is a +poisonous serpent, whose bite is death."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said one child. "How terrible, to think that anything evil +should be in a place so lovely. Let me flee from it!" and he wept, and +ran from the place.</p> + +<p>"Why," said the second child, "should such a thing be here? what is the +reason of it?" and he found him a safe place, and sat down to ponder on +the matter.</p> + +<p>The third child picked up a stone. "Show it to me!" he said.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="IF_THIS_SHOULD_BE_I" id="IF_THIS_SHOULD_BE_I"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> +<h2>IF THIS SHOULD BE</h2> +</div> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-012" id="illus-012"></a> +<img src='images/img038.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '106'/> +</div> + +<p>In the Place of Spirits, where many come seeking a home, and all who +earn shall find one, a band of child-spirits played about their door, +singing, and crowning one another with flowers. And as they played, +there drifted by a gray Shape, and stayed beside the gate, and wrung its +shadowy hands.</p> + +<p>Said the eldest child to the Angel who was their guardian; "Dear, there +is one seeking a home; shall we call her in?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush! oh, hush!" said the Angel. "You may not speak to her."</p> + +<p>"But," said the second child, "she stops at our gate, and gazes at us +with mournful eyes. Let us call her in!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush! oh, hush!" said the Angel. "You may not look at her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay!" cried the youngest; "but she holds out her arms, and makes a moan +like the wind at night. Why may we not call her in?"</p> + +<p>Then the Angel wept, for she had been a woman.</p> + +<p>"Must I tell you?" she cried. "It is she who should have been your +mother, and she would not."</p> + +<p>The children gazed, with calm, bright eyes. "What is a mother?" they +asked.</p> + +<p>"Alas! alas!" said the Angel; and her tears fell down like rain.</p> + +<p>"Alas! alas!" moaned the gray Shape at the gate, and beat the shadow +that was her breast, and trailed away in the gathering dusk.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="IF_THIS_SHOULD_BE_II" id="IF_THIS_SHOULD_BE_II"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +<h2>IF THIS SHOULD BE</h2> +</div> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 128px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-013" id="illus-013"></a> +<img src='images/img040.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '128' height = '88'/> +</div> + +<p>When the Little Sister went away, it was in such haste that she left her +convent robes behind; and this troubled her so that she spoke of it to +the Angel at the Gate. "You see," she said, "I had no idea that I was +coming; I fell asleep in my cell, and woke up in this beautiful homelike +place. But these white garments are not suitable for me; could I find a +black robe, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" said the Angel; "we all wear white here, and it is so much +prettier and more becoming. Besides, you must make haste, for they have +been waiting long for you."</p> + +<p>"Who have been waiting?" asked the Little Sister in wonder.</p> + +<p>"The children, to be sure!" said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> Angel. "See! there they come, +running to meet you."</p> + +<p>The Little Sister looked, and there came hastening toward her a lovely +band, little children and older ones, with floating locks and starry +eyes, and all the eyes fixed on her with looks of love, and all the arms +stretched out to her with gestures of longing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the darling, darling children!" cried the Little Sister. "Oh, the +little angels! Now I know that this is heaven indeed."</p> + +<p>She fell on her knees, and the children clustered round her, caressing +her, and murmuring sweet words in her ear; and all in a moment the +hunger that had been at her heart through the years was stilled, and she +opened her arms and gathered the children to her breast and wept; happy +tears were those!</p> + +<p>"Sweethearts," cried the Little Sister; "dear loves, tell me, whose +light and joy and blessing are you?"</p> + +<p>"Yours, of course!" answered the children.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_FEAST" id="THE_FEAST"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> +<h2>THE FEAST</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 103px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-014" id="illus-014"></a> +<img src='images/img042.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '103' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>The little Prince was coming; and in the dim, rich house that was his, +some children were making ready a feast for him. They strewed sweet +flowers, and lighted the candles, and made ready the table, white and +fair, with the gold and silver service.</p> + +<p>"It should stand here!" said one.</p> + +<p>"Nay!" said another; "this is the place for it; and the candles must be +over yonder." And he moved them.</p> + +<p>"That I will never consent to!" said the first. "Let me do things +properly, while you go and change your dress for a suitable one."</p> + +<p>"I shall not change my dress!" said the second child.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, shame!" said the first.</p> + +<p>While they wrangled, the children of the wood peeped in at the door, +ragged and rosy and bright-eyed, and laughed, and ran away.</p> + +<p>"Let us make a feast too," they said, "even if we have no fine things."</p> + +<p>They set them down under a great oak tree that grew beside the way, and +one gathered acorn cups, and another pulled burdock leaves and laid them +for a cloth, and a third plucked the wild strawberries that shone like +rubies in the grass.</p> + +<p>"Here is a fine feast!" cried the wood children.</p> + +<p>Just then along came the little Prince, and they called to him, "Come +and play with us, and share our feast!"</p> + +<p>"With all my heart!" said the little Prince. "But are there not other +children in the house yonder who would like to join us?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, they are busy quarrelling!" said the wood children.</p> + +<p>"Then we do not want them!" said the little Prince. He sat down with +them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> under the oak tree, and they all ate and drank and were right +merry.</p> + +<p>But the children in the dim, rich house pulled the table this way and +that, and moved the lights hither and yon, and looked at their delicate +robes and sighed: "The little Prince is long in coming!" they said.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_SPIRIT" id="THE_SPIRIT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> +<h2>THE SPIRIT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-015" id="illus-015"></a> +<img src='images/img045.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '105'/> +</div> + +<p>A man was toiling, seeking, toiling, by hot sun and cold moon, with +pickaxe and with spade; and as he toiled there came a bright Spirit, and +looked him in the face, and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, fair Spirit?" asked the man. And the other answered, "My +name is Truth!"</p> + +<p>Then the man threw down his pick and spade, and ran, and brought costly +robes and wrapped the Spirit in them; and set him on a throne, and bound +him fast with chains of gold, and covered his face with a veil of +precious web, and fell down and worshipped him. Happy man was he!</p> + +<p>Now by and by as he worshipped a traveller came by that way, and stopped +to look.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fair answer to your prayers, brother!" said the traveller. "What God do +you worship?"</p> + +<p>And the man said, "The Spirit of Truth."</p> + +<p>"Nay!" said the other; "how can that be? I met that spirit but now upon +the road. Gipsying along he was, light-foot, light-clad, and over his +shoulder pickaxe and spade."</p> + +<p>Then the man cried out in terror, and ran to the throne, and pulled the +veil away, and tore the robes apart: and lo! the veil holding empty air, +and the great robes folded in upon themselves, and the gold chains +binding them.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_ROOTS" id="THE_ROOTS"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> +<h2>THE ROOTS</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-016" id="illus-016"></a> +<img src='images/img047.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>A child found in its garden a plant. Fair and stately it was, full of +rosy buds, with green leaves strong and luminous. The child admired it +greatly.</p> + +<p>"How fair it is!" he said. "How full of light and fragrance! but how +does it grow? One should know that."</p> + +<p>He looked down, and saw that the plant came up out of the ground.</p> + +<p>"This is strange!" he said. "How should so fair a thing come up out of +this black and dirty soil? I must look to this!"</p> + +<p>He dug away the soil, and found the roots of the plant, bare and +twisted, clinging to the soil and dark with the touch of it.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the child, "this is terrible. Has that fair crown of rose and +green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> drawn its life from so foul a source as this? Oh, sorrow and +shame!" and he wept, and wrung his hands.</p> + +<p>As he sorrowed, the Angel of the Garden passed by, with her arms full of +flowers and fruit.</p> + +<p>"Little one," she said, "have you anything for me?"</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the child. "Look! I had this fair plant, the sweetest in +the world, but I find that its life grows out of the black and ugly +mould; its roots are black with it. Look! the flower begins to droop!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Angel. "Oh, the pity! you have killed it."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="ALONG_THE_WAY" id="ALONG_THE_WAY"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> +<h2>ALONG THE WAY</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-017" id="illus-017"></a> +<img src='images/img049.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '102'/> +</div> + +<p>In the early morning, when the dew was bright on the grass, a child +passed along the highway, and sang as he went. It was spring, and the +ferns were unrolling their green bundles, and the hepatica showed purple +under her gray fur. The child looked about him with eager, happy eyes, +rejoicing in all he saw, and answering the birds' songs with notes as +gay as their own. Now and then he dropped a seed here or there, for he +had a handful of them; sometimes he threw one to the birds; again he +dropped one for the squirrels; and still again he would toss one into +the air for very play, for that was what he loved best.</p> + +<p>Now it chanced that he passed by a spot where the earth lay bare, with +no tree or plant to cover its brown breast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the child. "Poor place, will nothing grow in you? here is a +seed for you, and now I will plant it properly."</p> + +<p>So he planted the seed properly, and smoothed the earth over it, and +went his way singing, and looking at the white clouds in the sky and at +the green things unfolding around him.</p> + +<p>It was a long, long journey the child had to go. Many perils beset his +path, many toils he had to overpass, many wounds and bruises he got on +the way. When he returned, one would hardly have known, to look at him, +that he was still a child. The day had been cruelly hot, and still the +afternoon sun beat fiercely down on the white road. His clothes were +torn and dusty; he toiled on, and sighed as he went, longing for some +spot of shade where he might sit down to rest.</p> + +<p>Presently he saw in the distance a waving of green, and a cool shadow +stretching across the white glowing road: and he drew near, and it was a +tree, young and vigorous, spreading its arms abroad, mantled in green +leaves that whispered and rustled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p> + +<p>Thankfully the child threw himself down in the pleasant shade, and +rested from his weary journey; and as he rested, he raised his eyes to +the green whispering curtain above him, and blessed the hand that +planted the tree.</p> + +<p>The little green leaves nodded and rustled, and whispered to one +another:</p> + +<p>"Yes! yes! it is himself he is blessing. But he does not know, and that +is the best of all!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_GRAVE_DIGGERS" id="THE_GRAVE_DIGGERS"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> +<h2>THE GRAVE DIGGERS</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-018" id="illus-018"></a> +<img src='images/img052.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '111'/> +</div> + +<p>A youth stood in the doorway of his house and looked out upon the road +he was to travel.</p> + +<p>"Alas!" he said. "It is a rough and stony road, and I am far from +strong: also my feet are tender, and I cannot bear pain. How shall I +take this hard journey?"</p> + +<p>Then, as he sighed and looked, he was ware of two coming towards him +with pick and mattock on their shoulders. Swiftly they came, and soon +they were at his side, fawning on him, and speaking in soft, wheedling +voices. Their faces were eager and servile, their eyes bright as flame.</p> + +<p>"Dear youth," they said, "we are come to smooth the road for you. It is +our trade; look, we have our tools with us! Give us but leave and we +will work for you gladly, and ask no pay."</p> + +<p>"What men are ye?" asked the youth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> + +<p>"We are called Temptation and Opportunity," they answered; "but what +matters this name or that? we seek but to serve you. Rest you still, and +soon the way shall be clear before you."</p> + +<p>So the youth went back into his house and set him down, and watched how +all day long the two toiled apart with mattock and pick, smoothing and +levelling, lifting stones out of the way, and hewing down brambles and +tangled trees. But at night he laid him down and slept: and then those +two ran speedily together, and with fierce looks and eager hands they +dug and howked a grave in the earth. Deep it was, and lay straight +across the road; yet so cunningly placed that it could not be seen till +one was close upon it.</p> + +<p>Morning came, and the youth stood at his door again, and saw the way +clear and smooth before him, and the two bowing low, with smiling faces +and fawning hands stretched out.</p> + +<p>"Come, good Master!" they cried. "Come, dear youth, and let us bring you +on your way!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_SICK_CHILD" id="THE_SICK_CHILD"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> +<h2>THE SICK CHILD</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-019" id="illus-019"></a> +<img src='images/img054.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '107'/> +</div> + +<p>The sick child sat at his window and looked out on the summer world. He +was sad at heart, for pain racked him, and weakness held him still; but +yet he smiled, because that pleased his mother.</p> + +<p>"I am of no use in the world," said the child to himself; "I am of less +worth than yonder broken bough that lies on the ground, for that at +least gives trouble to no one, and by and by it will make a fire to warm +some poor soul. But still I must smile, lest my mother should be sad."</p> + +<p>Presently the old field mouse who lived over the way came out of her +house, with a tiny brown velvet bundle in her mouth. It was one of her +eight young ones, and she was taking it to a new place, for the mole who +was their landlord had turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> them out. She had taken five of the +little ones to the new house, but now she was weary, and her jaws ached +sadly with holding the heavy little creatures.</p> + +<p>"I cannot carry them all!" she said. "The rest must die, since it cannot +be helped."</p> + +<p>Just then she looked up, and saw the child smiling at the window.</p> + +<p>"Look!" she said to herself. "That child has been watching me. He smiles +with pleasure at the beauty of my young ones, but he has not seen the +prettiest one yet. It will never do to give up now; I must try again, +and let him see that there are eight, all the handsomest of their +family."</p> + +<p>So she tried again, and brought all the eight in safety to their new +home.</p> + +<p>By and by a horse came along the road, dragging a heavy load. He was +old, and his bones ached, and the collar hurt his neck.</p> + +<p>"Why should I not give up," he said to himself, "and refuse to go on? my +master could only beat me, and he does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> that as it is. If I were dead, I +should not feel the blows; why should I struggle further with this +burden?"</p> + +<p>Just then he happened to lift his eyes, and saw the child smiling at the +window.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he said, "that child is smiling at me. He sees that I was once a +fine animal; he knows good blood when he sees it. Ah! if he had seen me +in my youth! But I can still show him something." And he arched his neck +proudly, and stepped out bravely, tossing his head, and the load came +more easily after him.</p> + +<p>By and by a man passed by, walking slowly, with bent head and sorrowful +look. He had lost the treasure of his heart, and the whole world was +black about him. "Why should I live longer?" he said to himself. "I have +nothing to live for in this world of misery. Let me lie down and die; in +death I can at least forget my pain and the pain of others."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he lifted his eyes by chance, and saw the child smiling at +the window.</p> + +<p>"Come!" said the man. "There at least is one happy heart; and he +smiles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> as if he were glad to see me pass. He is a sick child, too, +pale and thin; I must not cast a shadow on his cheerful day. And indeed, +the sun is bright and warm, even if my joy be cold."</p> + +<p>He smiled and nodded to the child, and the child nodded to him, and +waved his hand, and the man went on, carrying the smile warm at his +heart, and took up the burden of life again.</p> + +<p>Now it was evening. The child was weary. His head drooped on his bosom, +and his eyes closed. Then his mother came, and lifted him from his +chair, and laid him in his little bed.</p> + +<p>"God bless him!" she said softly. "He has had a happy day, for he is +smiling even in his sleep."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="AT_LONG_LAST" id="AT_LONG_LAST"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> +<h2>AT LONG LAST</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-020" id="illus-020"></a> +<img src='images/img058.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '113'/> +</div> + +<p>"Heart-of-mine, are you come at last?"</p> + +<p>"At long, long last, Beloved!"</p> + +<p>"Was it so long?"</p> + +<p>"Long as grief, cold as the stone above your grave, empty as the noonday +sky!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! how was it empty, when I left the cup brimming over for you? +Heart-of-mine, whom met you by the way?"</p> + +<p>"Only a man, crippled in the mire, cursing as he struggled. I shut my +ears against his foul speech and passed on."</p> + +<p>"Oh! if it were my brother, whom you should have helped! whom else?"</p> + +<p>"Only a woman, bowed under a burden; my own was more than I could bear, +and I let her be."</p> + +<p>"Alas! if it were my sister, and in her pack the balm that should have +healed you! Whom else again?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span></p> + +<p>"None else, save children: they cried about my path, but how could I +stay for them while you waited?"</p> + +<p>"Alas! if among the children were those I might not bear to you! And +fare you well, Heart-of-mine, for I must be gone, and now the time is +long indeed."</p> + +<p>"Oh! whither, Beloved of my soul, from my arms that clasp yet cannot +hold you?"</p> + +<p>"Heart-of-mine, where but back to earth, to do the work you left undone, +to gather up, with patience and with toil, the sheaves you left +behind!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="GILLYFLOWER_GENTLEMAN" id="GILLYFLOWER_GENTLEMAN"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> +<h2>GILLYFLOWER GENTLEMAN</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 100px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-021" id="illus-021"></a> +<img src='images/img060.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '100' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>"Why do you play alone, dear," asked the Play Angel, "and look so sadly +over your shoulder at the other children?"</p> + +<p>"Because they are so selfish!" said the child. "They will not play with +me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the pity!" said the Angel. "Tell me all about it."</p> + +<p>"I want to play one game, and they all want to play another!" said the +child. "It is very unkind of them."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever play Gillyflower Gentleman?" asked the Angel.</p> + +<p>"No!" said the child. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>"You shall see!" said the Angel. "Let us ask the others if they know +it."</p> + +<p>The other children did not know it, but they were eager to learn, and +soon they were all playing Gillyflower Gentleman;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> they played till all +their breath was gone, and they had to sit down on the haycocks to rest.</p> + +<p>"That was a great game!" said the first child. "I will play yours now, +if you wish me to."</p> + +<p>"We were just going to tell you that we would play yours!" said the +other children. So they played both, and the Play Angel went back to her +work.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_JUDGMENT" id="THE_JUDGMENT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> +<h2>THE JUDGMENT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-022" id="illus-022"></a> +<img src='images/img062.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '100'/> +</div> + +<p>"<i>Of judgment, because the Prince of this World is judged.</i>"—</p> + +<p>Now came the day when the Prince should be brought to judgment. Slowly +he came, under the weight of his fetters, that clanged about his wrists +and feet. His head was low on his breast, and his eyes heavy; so he +stood before the judgment seat, and spoke not, nor raised his eyes.</p> + +<p>The little Judge looked on him, and sighed, and spoke.</p> + +<p>"It was you who saw me hungry and naked and cold, and drew your furs +round you and passed by."</p> + +<p>"Yea!" said the Prince.</p> + +<p>"It was you who set me cruel tasks, and smote me when I fainted under +them."</p> + +<p>"Yea!" said the Prince.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span></p> + +<p>"It was you who cast me into prison, into darkness and bitterness as of +death."</p> + +<p>"Yea!" said the Prince.</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the little Judge. "Poor soul, did you know no better?"</p> + +<p>When the Prince heard that a great sob burst from him, and he fell on +his face before the judgment seat, and his fetters clanged loud on the +stone.</p> + +<p>Oh! then came little feet pattering down the steps, and little hands +lifted him, and he rose to his feet; but the chains lay where they fell.</p> + +<p>"Come, Brother!" said the little Judge. "We will go back, and begin +again together!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_BLIND_CHILD" id="THE_BLIND_CHILD"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> +<h2>THE BLIND CHILD</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 131px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-023" id="illus-023"></a> +<img src='images/img064.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '131' height = '87'/> +</div> + +<p>"Mother," said the blind child, "what a pity it is that everybody in +this village, except you, is so ugly!"</p> + +<p>"Bless your heart, my darling," said the mother; "why do you say that?"</p> + +<p>"I was sitting by the fountain," said the blind child, "listening to the +falling water, and the neighbors came to fill their pitchers, and I +heard them talking. It was terrible! it seems that every one in the +whole village is either bald or cross-eyed, wrinkled or misshapen. All +save you, mother!"</p> + +<p>"Bless your heart," said the mother; and she looked at her gray, worn +face in the little glass that hung on the wall.</p> + +<p>"They did not like to praise your beauty before me!" cried the blind +child. "They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> spoke your name, and then said, 'Oh! hush, there is the +child!' Was it not foolish of them, mother? as if I did not know!"</p> + +<p>"Bless your heart!" said the mother.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_CAKE" id="THE_CAKE"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> +<h2>THE CAKE</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 101px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-024" id="illus-024"></a> +<img src='images/img066.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '101' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>Once a Cake would go seek his fortune in the world, and he took his +leave of the Pan he was baked in.</p> + +<p>"I know my destiny," said the Cake. "I must be eaten, since to that end +I was made; but I am a good cake, if I say it who should not, and I +would fain choose the persons I am to benefit."</p> + +<p>"I don't see what difference it makes to you!" said the Pan.</p> + +<p>"But imagination is hardly your strong point!" said the Cake.</p> + +<p>"Huh!" said the Pan.</p> + +<p>The Cake went on his way, and soon he passed by a cottage door where sat +a woman spinning, and her ten children playing about her.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the woman, "what a beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> cake!" and she put out her hand +to take him.</p> + +<p>"Be so good as to wait a moment!" said the Cake. "Will you kindly tell +me what you would do with me if I should yield myself up to you?"</p> + +<p>"I shall break you into ten pieces," said the woman, "and give one to +each of my ten children. So you will give ten pleasures, and that is a +good thing."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that would be very nice, I am sure," said the Cake; "but if you +will excuse me for mentioning it, your children seem rather dirty, +especially their hands, and I confess I should like to keep my frosting +unsullied, so I think I will go a little further."</p> + +<p>"As you will!" said the woman. "After all, the brown loaf is better for +the children."</p> + +<p>So the Cake went further, and met a fair child, richly dressed, with +coral lips and eyes like sunlit water. When the child saw the Cake, he +said like the woman, "Oh, what a beautiful Cake!" and put out his hand +to take it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am sure I should be most happy!" said the Cake. "And you will not +take it amiss, I am confident, if I ask with whom you will share me."</p> + +<p>"I shall not share you with any one!" said the child. "I shall eat you +myself, every crumb. What do you take me for?"</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" cried the Cake. "This will never do. Consider my +size,—and yours! You would be very ill!"</p> + +<p>"I don't care!" said the child. "I'd rather be ill than give any away." +And he fixed greedy eyes on the Cake, and stretched forth his hand +again.</p> + +<p>"This is really terrible!" cried the Cake. "What is one's frosting to +this? I will go back to the woman with the ten children."</p> + +<p>He turned and ran back, leaving the child screaming with rage and +disappointed greed. But as he ran, a hungry Puppy met him, and swallowed +him at a gulp, and went on licking his chops and wagging his tail.</p> + +<p>"Huh!" said the Pan.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_SERMON" id="THE_SERMON"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> +<h2>THE SERMON</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 101px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-025" id="illus-025"></a> +<img src='images/img069.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '101' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>The minister had just finished his great sermon. The air still quivered +with his burning words, and the people sat erect, disturbed, +embarrassed; yet still he lingered a moment in his place.</p> + +<p>"Is there," he asked, "one here in whose breast these words strike like +a barbed arrow, for the truth that is in them?" and he sat down.</p> + +<p>"That was hard on John," said old James; "but he deserves it, every +word."</p> + +<p>"A blow from the shoulder for James!" said old John; "time he got one +too, if it is not too late."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if either of those two old sinners will take his medicine and +be helped by it," said old William.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span></p> + +<p>But the little saint, the little saint, hurried home, and knelt by her +little bed, and cried aloud in her anguish: "My God, my God, have mercy +on me, and give me for this stone a heart of flesh!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_TANGLED_SKEIN" id="THE_TANGLED_SKEIN"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> +<h2>THE TANGLED SKEIN</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 130px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-026" id="illus-026"></a> +<img src='images/img071.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '130' height = '87'/> +</div> + +<p>"My dear child," said the Angel-who-attends-to-things, "why are you +crying so very hard?"</p> + +<p>"Oh dear! oh dear!" said the child. "No one ever had such a dreadful +time before, I do believe, and it all comes of trying to be good. Oh +dear! Oh dear! I wish I was bad; then I should not have all this +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you would," said the Angel; "a great deal worse. Now tell me what +is the matter!"</p> + +<p>"Look!" said the child. "Mother gave me this skein to wind, and I +promised to do it. But then father sent me on an errand, and it was +almost school-time, and I was studying my lesson and going on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> +errand and winding the skein, all at the same time, and now I have got +all tangled up in the wool, and I cannot walk either forward or back, +and oh! dear me, what ever <i>shall</i> I do?"</p> + +<p>"Sit down!" said the Angel.</p> + +<p>"But it is school-time!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"Sit down!" said the Angel.</p> + +<p>"But father sent me on an errand!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sit Down!</span>" said the Angel; and he took the child by her shoulders and +set her down.</p> + +<p>"Now sit still!" he said, and he began patiently to wind up the skein. +It was wofully tangled, and knotted about the child's hands and feet; it +was a wonder she could move at all; but at last it was all clear, and +the Angel handed her the ball.</p> + +<p>"I thank you so very much!" said the child. "I was not naughty, was I?"</p> + +<p>"Not naughty, only foolish; but that does just as much harm sometimes."</p> + +<p>"But I was doing right things!" said the child.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span></p> + +<p>"But you were doing them in the wrong way!" said the Angel. "It is good +to do an errand, and it is good to go to school, but when you have a +skein to wind you must sit still."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_NURSLING" id="THE_NURSLING"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> +<h2>THE NURSLING</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 101px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-027" id="illus-027"></a> +<img src='images/img074.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '101' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>Yesterday, the kind nurse, Yesterday, the wise old woman, sat by the +fire with her nursling on her knee.</p> + +<p>"Still, my babe, be still!" she said. "Listen now, till I sing you a +song!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I know all your songs," said the child. "I know them by heart, the +sleepy bed-time songs. But the lovely lady yonder, who smiles at me from +the doorway, sings a new song, new and strange, and sweet, sweet. If I +listen to her, may be I shall learn it."</p> + +<p>"Nay! listen not to her, the gipsy!" said Yesterday. "Bide here by the +fire with me, my babe, and I will tell you a story shall do you good to +hear."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I know all your stories," said the child, "know them every word, +and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> of them are false, and all are dull. But the lovely lady who +beckons me from the doorway murmurs strange words, in a new tongue, yet +clear as light; if I go with her, may be I shall learn it."</p> + +<p>"Child, child," said the old nurse, "listen not to her gipsy talk; it is +full of peril, and these new words have wicked meanings. Come with me, +my darling, and I will show you my garden, full of sweet flowers and +delicate fruits and precious herbs. See! they have grown from all time, +and I gathered them from the four ways of the world, and all for you."</p> + +<p>The child laughed, and his laugh rang cruel clear, as when a bird sings +loud and merry over a new-made grave.</p> + +<p>"Your flowers are faded," he said. "I have tasted your fruits, every +one, and your precious herbs are but a handful of dry leaves and stalks. +But the lovely lady who holds out her hands to me from the doorway tells +me of things unknown, dim lands of furthest dawn, seas that no bark has +ever sailed. I will go with her and see them, and live my life."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay now, my child, my darling; stay with me by the fire, in the warm +sheltered room;" said Yesterday the nurse, the wise old woman.</p> + +<p>But the child was already gone, with To-morrow, the lovely lady with +sunrise in her eyes, laughter on her lips, and the knife hidden in her +hand.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="WORMWOOD" id="WORMWOOD"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> +<h2>WORMWOOD</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 100px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-028" id="illus-028"></a> +<img src='images/img077.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '100' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>All the morning the child ran about his field, smelling the sweet, +tasting the sweet, plucking the bright and gay; and as he plucked and +smelled and tasted, he found among the strawberries a dusky leaf that +was bitter in his mouth. "What is this?" he asked of the Angel beside +him; and the Angel said, "It is wormwood!"</p> + +<p>"Pluck it all up!" cried the child. "It is bitter and hateful; I will +have nought in my field but strawberries and roses."</p> + +<p>And the Angel smiled, with folded hands.</p> + +<p>Noon came, and afternoon, with long rays sloping westward; and the child +walked in his field with slow and thoughtful steps. There were no +flowers now in the grass, but everywhere a dusky leaf with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> dusky +berries; and the air was full of the fragrance of them, sweet and yet +bitter; bitter, yet oh, how sweet!</p> + +<p>"What is this," the child asked, "that is bitter, and yet sweeter than +aught else in the world?"</p> + +<p>And the Angel said, "It is wormwood!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_PIT" id="THE_PIT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> +<h2>THE PIT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-029" id="illus-029"></a> +<img src='images/img079.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '101'/> +</div> + +<p>"<i>Though I make my bed in Hell</i>...."</p> + +<p>It was dark in the Pit. The air was heavy with poisonous vapors; the +walls were foul with the slime of uncounted generations; under foot was +the horror of the ages; yet still the man slept, for he was used to the +place, and his brain sodden with the fumes of it. But by and by, as he +slept, a sound crept into his ears, a weary, crying voice that went on +and on and would not still; till the man stirred uneasily in his sleep, +and awoke with the sound in his ears.</p> + +<p>"Who is this," he said, "that breaks my slumber?"</p> + +<p>He hearkened, and the voice went crying on:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh! the blackness and the horror! oh! the dreadful, dreadful place! +will none help me out?"</p> + +<p>"What ails you at the place?" asked the man. "One sleeps well enough, if +folk would but be quiet."</p> + +<p>And the voice went clamoring on; the piteousness of it might have +stirred the dead things under foot.</p> + +<p>"Oh! for one breath of God's pure air! for one glimpse of God's good +sunshine! Oh! the horror of it, to die in the foul dark! will none help +me out?"</p> + +<p>Then the man looked, for his eyes were used to the mirk of the Pit, and +saw beside him the face of a youth, glimmering white as the dead moon at +midday, and shining with tears and sweat of agony; and the lad was +tearing at the walls, trying to make a way out; but his hands slipped on +the slimy stones, and he fell back moaning and crying.</p> + +<p>"Here is a great ado!" said the man. "But if it goes so ill with you, I +will find a way out, if way there be."</p> + +<p>He rose from the wallow where he lay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> and with his strong hands felt +along the walls, and found a crack between two great stones, and set his +strength to rend them apart; but they clung together like the lips of +Death. Long he struggled, yet could not stir them; and ever the doleful +voice beat like a bell in his ears, till it seemed to him that he must +give his life, so but that lad might go free.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he felt a touch upon him, and in that same moment the stones +moving under his hand: and looking, he was ware through the glimmering +dark of another hand laid on the stone, and of one toiling beside him, +striving even as he strove. Then the man set all the strength that was +in him, and the great stones crumbled apart, and through the opening the +fresh wind blew and the sun shone.</p> + +<p>Then those two, the man and he who had toiled beside him, lifted the +youth between them and brought him out into the open day; and the lad +cried out once more, sobbing now for pure joy, and kissed their hands +that had brought him out, and went singing on his way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span></p> + +<p>But the man stayed, and looked on that one who had toiled beside him. +"Oh!" he said, "it was you!"</p> + +<p>"Who else?" said the other.</p> + +<p>"But how came you there?" asked the man.</p> + +<p>And the other answered, "I went in with you!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="HOSPITALITY" id="HOSPITALITY"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> +<h2>HOSPITALITY</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 84px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-030" id="illus-030"></a> +<img src='images/img083.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '84' height = '128'/> +</div> + +<p>"I hear," said the hospitable man, "that my friend has come from over +seas. Now therefore let us do thus and so, for he is the man of all men +whom I delight to honor."</p> + +<p>So the hospitable man hurried to and fro all day, gathering this that +was rich, and that that was costly, and the other that was delicate; and +bidding his acquaintance come and help him do honor to his friend.</p> + +<p>Next day he met another friend, who was a physician.</p> + +<p>"Whither away so fast?" asked the hospitable man.</p> + +<p>"Do not stay me!" said the physician. "The case is urgent. I am going to +So-and-So." And he named the friend from over seas.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span></p> + +<p>"You distress me infinitely!" cried the hospitable man. "Is So-and-So +ill?"</p> + +<p>"Some rascal poisoned him last night," said the physician. "A bad +business. I doubt if he recovers."</p> + +<p>"Good God!" cried the hospitable man. "He dined with me last night."</p> + +<p>"Oh! was it you?" said the physician.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_POT" id="THE_POT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +<h2>THE POT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-031" id="illus-031"></a> +<img src='images/img085.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>The great Pot boiled and bubbled over the crackling flames. Fat and +lean, sweet and bitter, had gone to fill it, and all seethed merrily +together. "Hubble bubble!" said the Pot.</p> + +<p>Now it came to pass after a time that a certain part of what was within +rose to the top, and mantled there, frothing and eddying.</p> + +<p>"I am the cream!" it said. "This is my proper place, the top of the Pot. +Under me the mass seethes darkling, and from it I rise to light and air. +My glory rejoices; this is as it should be!"</p> + +<p>Now came the Cook, and lifted the lid of the Pot and looked in. "Ah!" he +said. "The scum has risen, and must be taken off, lest the meat be +spoiled." And he took it off.</p> + +<p>"Hubble bubble!" said the Pot.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_BODY" id="THE_BODY"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> +<h2>THE BODY</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-032" id="illus-032"></a> +<img src='images/img086.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '103'/> +</div> + +<p>"But you don't understand!" said the Soul. "It is my body that makes all +the trouble. Its nerves are all atwist, its brain does not work +properly, its heart is too small. <i>I</i> am all right: if I could have +another chance, in a decently furnished body, you would see what a +different creature I should be."</p> + +<p>"Very well!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "I know several other +souls who are wishing for a change; you may try their bodies, and see if +you can suit yourself."</p> + +<p>The Soul thanked the Angel joyfully, and flew in the direction he +pointed out. Presently he came to the body of a fair woman, clad in +white, with roses in its hands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span></p> + +<p>"This is beautiful!" said the Soul. "This is exactly what I want." He +crept in, and flowed through the white body, and it moved and rose up +with him, and went to and fro.</p> + +<p>But soon the Soul cried out: "Oh! this body pinches me; it is too tight. +Besides, it has the habit of fasting, and mortification, and I am used +to a body that smokes. This will never do!" And he crept out again, and +went further.</p> + +<p>Presently he came to a stalwart body of a man, with bones and sinews +knit of iron.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the Soul. "Beauty is after all a slight thing. Strength is +what one needs; this is the body for me." And he slipped in, and flowed +through the body, and it moved, and rose up with him, and walked with +swift and powerful strides.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" cried the Soul. "This will never do. This body is far +too big for me; I feel it all loose, and full of cold draughts. I shall +certainly get the rheumatism. And I don't care about these things it is +doing, hewing wood and carrying water<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> for other people. I have made a +mistake; let me correct it before it is too late!" and he crept out.</p> + +<p>Going further, he came upon a body sunk in an easy-chair, clad in loose +and easy garb of a man, and by it a table with glasses and bottles: and +the Soul yearned toward it. "Ah!" cried the Soul. "After all, there is +nothing like one's own!" And he crept into the body, and flowed through +and through it; and the body stretched itself with a long, long sigh, +and put its hand out to the bottle, and drank, and chuckled to itself.</p> + +<p>"But how about those others who wanted a change?" asked the Soul of the +Angel-who-attends-to-things. "I trust I am not disappointing any of them +in taking up this dear old comfortable body again?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" said the Angel. "They did not like its looks at all, and +decided to go on to another world."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_RULER." id="THE_RULER."></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> +<h2>THE RULER.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 129px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-033" id="illus-033"></a> +<img src='images/img089.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '129' height = '96'/> +</div> + +<p>When it was time for the Child to have lessons, the Teacher-Angel gave +him a sheet of paper, smooth and white, and a pencil, and a ruler.</p> + +<p>"Write as well as you can," he said; "and mind you keep the lines +straight!"</p> + +<p>The Child admired the ruler greatly; "I will put it up on the wall," he +said, "where I can see it always." So he put it up on the wall, and the +sunbeams, hardly brighter than itself, sparkled on it.</p> + +<p>"It must be pure gold," said the Child; "there is nothing else so +beautiful in the world." And then he began his task.</p> + +<p>By and by the lesson time was over, and the Teacher-Angel came to see +what had been done. The Child showed him the paper on which he had +written his task. Up and down went the lines, here and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> there, from side +to side of the sheet, which was covered with sprawling, straggling +letters. There were smudges, too, where he had tried to rub something +out; it was not a pretty page.</p> + +<p>"What is this?" asked the Teacher-Angel. "Where is your ruler?"</p> + +<p>"There it is," said the Child. "Up on the wall. It was so beautiful, I +put it up there where I could see it always. See where it hangs! But +methinks it is not so bright as it was."</p> + +<p>"No!" said the Teacher-Angel. "It would have been brighter if you had +used it."</p> + +<p>"But I admired it greatly," said the Child.</p> + +<p>"But your lines are crooked!" said the Angel.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_TORCH-BEARER" id="THE_TORCH-BEARER"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> +<h2>THE TORCH-BEARER</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-034" id="illus-034"></a> +<img src='images/img091.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '113'/> +</div> + +<p>A voice came ringing down the way: "Room! room for the Torch-bearer! +room for the keeper of the gates of To-morrow! room!"</p> + +<p>"Ah! yes," I said. "It is he, the great sage, who has lightened the +world-shadows this many a year. Who should bear the torch but he?"</p> + +<p>I looked, and the sage passed, his arms folded on his breast, his calm +eyes bent forward, seeing many things: but no torch was in his hand.</p> + +<p>And still the cry came ringing down the world's way: "Room for the +Torch-bearer! make way! make way for the keeper of the gates of +To-morrow!"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" I said. "It will be the mighty leader, then; he who so long has +marshalled our hearts, and led us whithersoever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> he would with a wave of +his hand. Hail to him, hail to the Master of Armies!"</p> + +<p>But as I looked, the Master passed, and his truncheon hung low by his +side, and his eyes looked downward, remembering; and no torch was in his +hand.</p> + +<p>Yet still, as I marvelled, came that great cry ringing down the world's +way, and now it sounded loud in my ears.</p> + +<p>"Room! room! make way, give place! the Torch-bearer comes. Make way for +the keeper of the gates of God!"</p> + +<p>And once more I looked.</p> + +<p>Ah! bare and dusty were her feet, the little woman; and she went bowed, +and stumbled on the rough stones, for the great torch hung heavy in her +hand, and heavy the babe on her arm: but he sat there as on a throne, +and laughed and leaped as he sat, and clutched the living torch and +shook it, flinging the blaze abroad, and the world-way lightened before +him.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_STONE_BLOCKS" id="THE_STONE_BLOCKS"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> +<h2>THE STONE BLOCKS</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 133px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-035" id="illus-035"></a> +<img src='images/img093.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '133' height = '75'/> +</div> + +<p>"Why is your little sister crying, dear?" asked the Play Angel. "I +thought you were taking care of her."</p> + +<p>"So I am, taking beautiful care of her," said the child. "But the more +beautiful care I take, the more she cries. She does not like care to be +taken of her."</p> + +<p>"Let me see!" said the Play Angel; and she sat down on the nursery +floor. "Now show me what you have done."</p> + +<p>"Look!" said the child. "First I showed her all my dolls, and then all +my new dresses; and now I have given her my new stone blocks to play +with, but she will not play, only puts them in her mouth and cries."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she is hungry!" said the Play Angel. She took a piece of bread +from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> folds of her robe and gave it to the baby; and the baby +stopped crying, and ate the bread, and laughed and crowed.</p> + +<p>"See!" said the Angel. "Now she is happy. Remember, dear, that when +babies are hungry, stone blocks do them no good."</p> + +<p>"You are a very clever angel to know that!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"You are a rather foolish child," said the Angel, "or you would have +found it out for yourself."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_POTTER" id="THE_POTTER"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> +<h2>THE POTTER</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-036" id="illus-036"></a> +<img src='images/img095.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '102'/> +</div> + +<p>A potter wrought at his wheel, singing as he wrought, turning out crocks +and pipkins of red clay. They were clumsy of shape and rude in the +making, yet they served to hold meal and milk, and the poor folk bought +of him. But ever, as he shaped the clay, the potter said to himself: +"Some day, some day, I will make a cup of gold for the Prince's +drinking!"</p> + +<p>Now and again, when he was well paid for his pots, he would get a bit of +gold and put it by. This small hoard was precious to him as sunlight, +and bit by bit, little coin by little coin, it grew, till one day he had +enough. Then he left his clay, and with care and loving pains, his lathe +turning to the beat of his heart, he fashioned a little cup of gold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is small," he said, "but it will hold wine for a single draught." +And he set it in the sun among his pots, where it could be seen of the +passers-by.</p> + +<p>Presently rode by the Prince and his court, and saw the pots, and on one +the sun shining.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said one of the courtiers, "if the potter have not gilded one of +his clay pipkins!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_NEIGHBOUR" id="THE_NEIGHBOUR"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> +<h2>THE NEIGHBOUR</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 109px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-037" id="illus-037"></a> +<img src='images/img097.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '109' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>"What can you tell me of your neighbour?" asked the +Angel-who-looks-into-things.</p> + +<p>"Oh, an excellent person!" said the Busy Man. "Full of wisdom and +virtue; merry, too, withal; in short, a delightful companion."</p> + +<p>"You have been much together, then?" said the +Angel-who-looks-into-things.</p> + +<p>"Well, scarcely that," replied the Busy Man; "in fact, I have been so +excessively busy that I have seen nothing of him for a long time. But +now I have every intention of doing so; indeed, I think I will ask him +to dine with me to-night."</p> + +<p>"You can hardly do that!" said the Angel.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because he died this morning."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_WOUND" id="THE_WOUND"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> +<h2>THE WOUND</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-038" id="illus-038"></a> +<img src='images/img098.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>Once an Angel found a child crying bitterly, and stopped to comfort him.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, dear?" asked the Angel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have hurt myself dreadfully!" said the child. "Dreadfully! see!" +and he showed his wound.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that must have hurt very much, I know," said the Angel; "but cheer +up! I knew another child who was wounded in the same place, and he got +over it in good time."</p> + +<p>"Ah! but it was not so bad a wound as mine!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was," said the Angel; "every bit as bad."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span></p> + +<p>"But it did not hurt him so much!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"How do you know that?" asked the Angel.</p> + +<p>"Because he wasn't me!" said the child.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_WHITE_FIRE_I" id="THE_WHITE_FIRE_I"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> +<h2>THE WHITE FIRE</h2> +</div> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-039" id="illus-039"></a> +<img src='images/img100.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>Three men came to Love the Lord, asking a gift of his white fire, and +the gift was not denied. "Take it, keep it, use it!" said Love the Lord; +and they answered joyfully, "Yea, Lord, this will we do!"</p> + +<p>Then the three fared forth on their way, the old way, and the new way, +and the only way; yet they went not together, but each by himself alone.</p> + +<p>Presently one came to a dark valley, full of men who groped with their +hands, seeking the way, and finding it not, for they had no light; and +they moaned, and cried, "Oh! that we had light, to show us the way!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span></p> + +<p>Then that man answered aloud, "Yea, and there shall be light!"</p> + +<p>And he took the fire that was given him of Love the Lord, and made of it +a torch, and held it aloft, and it flashed through the darkness like a +sword, and showed the way; and he leading, they following, they came +safe through that place into the light of day.</p> + +<p>The second man went by another path of the way, and it led him over a +bleak moor, where the wind blew bitter keen, and the rocks stood like +frozen iron; and here were men shivering with cold, huddling together +for warmth, yet finding none, for they had no fire. And they moaned, and +cried, "Ah! if we had but fire to keep the life in us, for we perish!"</p> + +<p>And the man said, "Yea, there shall be fire!"</p> + +<p>And he took the fire that he had of Love the Lord, and spread it out, +and set faggots to it, and it blazed up broad and bright; and the folk +gathered round it, and held out their hands and warmed themselves at it, +and forgot the bitter wind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span></p> + +<p>Now the third man went his way also; and as he went he said to himself, +"How shall I keep my fire safe, that no fierce wind blow it out, and no +foul vapor stifle it? I know what I will do; I will hide it in my heart, +and so no harm can come to it." And he hid the fire in his heart, and +carried it so, and went on.</p> + +<p>Now by and by those three came to the end of the way, and there waited +for them one in white, and his face veiled. He said to the first man, +"What of your fire?"</p> + +<p>And the man said, "I found folk struggling in darkness, and I made a +torch of my fire, and showed them the way; now is it well-nigh wasted, +yet still it burns."</p> + +<p>And he in white said, "It is well; this fire shall never die."</p> + +<p>Then came the second, and of him, too, that one asked, "What of your +fire?"</p> + +<p>And he said, "I found men shivering, with nought to warm them, and I +gave my fire, that they might live, and not die."</p> + +<p>And he in white answered again, "It is well; this fire too shall never +die."</p> + +<p>Then came the third, and answered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> boldly, and said, "I have brought my +fire safe, through peril and through strife; lo, see it here in my +heart!"</p> + +<p>Then that one in white put aside his veil; and it was Love the Lord +himself. "Alas!" he said; "what is this you have done?"</p> + +<p>And he opened the man's heart; and inside it was a black char, and white +ashes lying in it.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_WHITE_FIRE_II" id="THE_WHITE_FIRE_II"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> +<h2>THE WHITE FIRE</h2> +</div> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-040" id="illus-040"></a> +<img src='images/img104.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '107'/> +</div> + +<p>This one Love the Lord called to him, and waited no asking, but put the +gift in her hands, the white gift of fire.</p> + +<p>"What shall I do with it, Lord?" she asked: and he said, "Lighten the +darkness!"</p> + +<p>"Yea, Lord," she answered, "as I may!" and took the gift meekly and +went. But as she went, she met one strong and silent, who took her in +his arms, and bore her to a high tower, and kept her there in ward. The +name of that strong one was Pain, and he was faithful as Night and +Death, and they two dwelt together.</p> + +<p>But she in the tower tended ever the white fire, and wept over it, +saying, "How,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> in this tower, shall I do the will of Love the Lord, +seeing here are only my fellow Pain and I? and the tower is full of +seams and cracks, so that the wind blows cold upon my fire, and would +fain quench it; and in no case can I lighten any darkness save my own."</p> + +<p>But still she tended the fire and kept it alive; pure and white was the +flame of it, and she and her fellow Pain sat beside it and kept them +warm.</p> + +<p>But Love the Lord looked from the clearness where he dwelt, and smiled; +well pleased was he. For he saw through the seams and rents in that +doleful tower the light stream clear and radiant: and in the darkness +toward which his high heart yearned he saw men struggling forward, and +heard them cry to one another joyfully, "Look up! take heart! yonder +shines a light to guide us on the way."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="FOR_YOU_AND_ME" id="FOR_YOU_AND_ME"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> +<h2>FOR YOU AND ME</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-041" id="illus-041"></a> +<img src='images/img106.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '99'/> +</div> + +<p>"I have come to speak to you about your work," said the +Angel-who-attends-to-things. "It appears to be unsatisfactory."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said the man. "I hardly see how that can be. Perhaps you will +explain."</p> + +<p>"I will!" said the Angel. "To begin with, the work is slovenly."</p> + +<p>"I was born heedless," said the man. "It is a family failing which I +have always regretted."</p> + +<p>"It is ill put together, too;" said the Angel. "The parts do not fit."</p> + +<p>"I never had any eye for proportion," said the man; "I admit it is +unfortunate."</p> + +<p>"The whole thing is a botch," said the Angel. "You have put neither +brains nor heart into it, and the result is ridiculous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> failure. What do +you propose to do about it?"</p> + +<p>"I credited you with more comprehension," said the man. "My faults, such +as they are, were born with me. I am sorry that you do not approve of +me, but this is the way I was made; do you see?"</p> + +<p>"I see!" said the Angel. He put out a strong white hand, and taking the +man by the collar, tumbled him neck and crop into the ditch.</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of this?" cried the man, as he scrambled out +breathless and dripping. "I never saw such behavior. Do you see what you +have done? you have ruined my clothes, and nearly drowned me beside."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes!" said the Angel: "this is the way <i>I</i> was made."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_PICTURE_BOOK" id="THE_PICTURE_BOOK"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> +<h2>THE PICTURE BOOK</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-042" id="illus-042"></a> +<img src='images/img108.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '121'/> +</div> + +<p>"Brother," said the little boy, "show me a pretty picture book!"</p> + +<p>"Nay!" said the brother. "I would rather show you this book with the +ugly pictures, so that when you come to see ugly things you may know +what they are. Look! see this, how hateful it is; and this, how hideous; +and here again, this, enough to turn one cold with horror."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the child; and he shuddered. "They are horrible indeed; show +me more!"</p> + +<p>Next day the brother found the child before a mirror, twisting his face +this way and that, squinting, and making a thousand horrible grimaces.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span></p> + +<p>"My dear little boy," cried the brother, "why are you making yourself so +hideous?"</p> + +<p>"I want to see if I can look like the pictures in the book!" said the +child.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_FLOWER_OF_JOY" id="THE_FLOWER_OF_JOY"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> +<h2>THE FLOWER OF JOY</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-043" id="illus-043"></a> +<img src='images/img110.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '105'/> +</div> + +<p>The white frost struck my garden, and blighted my flower of joy. Oh! it +was fair, and all the sweetness of the spring breathed from its cup; but +now it lay blackened and withered, and my heart with it.</p> + +<p>Then, as I stood mourning, I heard another crying voice; and looking up +I saw my neighbour in her garden, bending over her stricken plants and +weeping sore. I hastened to her. "Take courage!" I said. "It may be they +are not quite dead: for, look! here lingers a little green along the +leaves. Look here again, the sap flows. Take heart, and we will work +together, you and I."</p> + +<p>So I labored, and she with me, binding up, tending and watering, night +and day;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> till at last life came back to her plants, first faltering, +then flowing free, and they held up their heads and drank the sunshine, +and opened fair and sweet to the day.</p> + +<p>Then, with her blessing warm at my heart, I turned me homeward: and oh! +and oh! in the ruined garden where all lay black and prone, a thread of +green creeping, a tiny bud peeping, a breath of spring upon the air. +Glad woman, I fell upon my knees, and stretched out trembling hands to +where, faint and feeble, yet alive, bloomed once more my flower of joy.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_BURNING_HOUSE" id="THE_BURNING_HOUSE"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> +<h2>THE BURNING HOUSE</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-044" id="illus-044"></a> +<img src='images/img112.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '110'/> +</div> + +<p>Some neighbours were walking together in the cool of the day, watching +the fall of the twilight, and talking of this and that; and as they +walked, they saw at a little distance a light, as it were a house on +fire.</p> + +<p>"From the direction, that must be our neighbour William's house," said +one. "Ought we not to warn him of the danger?"</p> + +<p>"I see only a little flame," said another; "perchance it may go out of +itself, and no harm done."</p> + +<p>"I should be loth to carry ill news," said a third; "it is always a +painful thing to do."</p> + +<p>"William is not a man who welcomes interference," said a fourth. "I +should not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> like to be the one to intrude upon his privacy; probably he +knows about the fire, and is managing it in his own way."</p> + +<p>While they were talking, the house burned up.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="THE_PLANT" id="THE_PLANT"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> +<h2>THE PLANT</h2> +</div> + +<div class='figleft' style='width: 99px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-045" id="illus-045"></a> +<img src='images/img114.jpg' alt='' title='' width = '99' height = '123'/> +</div> + +<p>A plant grew up in the spring, and spread its leaves and looked abroad, +rejoicing in its life.</p> + +<p>"To grow!" said the plant. "To be beautiful, and gladden the eyes of +those who look on me: this is life. The Giver of it be praised!"</p> + +<p>Now the plant budded and blossomed: lovely the blossoms were, and sweet, +and men plucked them joyfully.</p> + +<p>"This is well!" said the plant. "To send beauty and fragrance hither and +thither, to sweeten the world even a little, this is life: the Giver of +it be praised!"</p> + +<p>Autumn came, and the plant stood lonely, yet at peace. "One cannot +always be in blossom!" it said. "One has done what one could, and a +little is part of the whole."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span></p> + +<p>By and by came a gatherer of herbs, and cut the green leaves from the +plant. "They are good for bruises," he said; "or distilled, their juice +may heal an inward wound."</p> + +<p>The plant heard and rejoiced. "To heal!" it said. "That is even better +than to gladden the eyes. The Giver of this too be praised!"</p> + +<p>Now it was winter. The dry stalk stood in the field, and crackled with +the frost, its few remaining leaves clinging black and shrivelled about +it.</p> + +<p>"All is over now," said the plant. "There must be an end to everything."</p> + +<p>But now came a poor soul shivering with the cold, and took the dry plant +and carried it to his home; and breaking it in pieces, laid the +fragments on his naked hearth and set fire to them. Puff! the dry stalks +crackled into flame and blazed up merrily, filling the room with light +and warmth.</p> + +<p>"And is this death?" said the plant. "The Giver of all be praised!"</p> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Note</h3> + <ol> + <li>Original drop capitals beginning each chapter retained as images, + with represented letter included in text.</li> +</ol> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Silver Crown, by Laura E. 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Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Silver Crown + Another Book of Fables + +Author: Laura E. Richards + +Release Date: November 21, 2006 [EBook #19892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SILVER CROWN *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE SILVER CROWN + +Another Book of Fables + +BY +LAURA E. RICHARDS + +Author of "Captain January," "The Golden Windows," +"The Joyous Story of Toto," etc. + +BOSTON +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY +1919 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +COPYRIGHT, 1906, +BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + +All rights reserved + +Printers +S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO MY SISTER + +MAUD HOWE ELLIOTT + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + A WINTER THOUGHT + + + Hast thou e'er a grief, dear? + Lock it in thy heart! + Keep it, close it, + Sacred and apart; + Lest another, at thy sigh, + Hear his sorrow stir and cry. + Wakeful watch doth sorrow keep: + Hush it! hide it! bid it sleep! + + Hast thou e'er a joy, love? + Bind it on thy brow! + Vaunt it, flaunt it, + All the world to know. + Where the shade lies dim and gray, + Turn its glad and heartsome ray. + Does thy sad-browed neighbor smile? + So thy life was worth the while! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + +THE SILVER CROWN 1 +THE GRUMPY SAINT 5 +THE HOUSEKEEPER 9 +BROTHER BARNABAS 12 +THE FATES 14 +THE STEPS 16 +THE GLASS 19 +IN THE SHADED ROOM 21 +HELL GATE 24 +THE THORN 25 +THE SERPENT 27 +IF THIS SHOULD BE. I 28 +IF THIS SHOULD BE. II 30 +THE FEAST 32 +THE SPIRIT 35 +THE ROOTS 37 +ALONG THE WAY 39 +THE GRAVE DIGGERS 42 +THE SICK CHILD 44 +AT LONG LAST 48 +GILLYFLOWER GENTLEMAN 50 +THE JUDGMENT 52 +THE BLIND CHILD 54 +THE CAKE 56 +THE SERMON 59 +THE TANGLED SKEIN 61 +THE NURSLING 64 +WORMWOOD 67 +THE PIT 69 +HOSPITALITY 73 +THE POT 75 +THE BODY 76 +THE RULER 79 +THE TORCH-BEARER 81 +THE STONE BLOCKS 83 +THE POTTER 85 +THE NEIGHBOUR 87 +THE WOUND 88 +THE WHITE FIRE. I 90 +THE WHITE FIRE. II 94 +FOR YOU AND ME 96 +THE PICTURE BOOK 98 +THE FLOWER OF JOY 100 +THE BURNING HOUSE 102 +THE PLANT 104 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE SILVER CROWN + +A BOOK OF FABLES + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +THE SILVER CROWN + + +"And shall I be a king?" asked the child, "and shall I wear a crown?" + +"You shall surely wear a crown," said the Angel, "and a kingdom is +waiting for you." + +"Oh, joy!" said the child. "But tell me, how will it come about? for now +I am only a little child, and the crown would hardly stay on my curls." + +"Nay! that I may not tell," said the Angel. "Only ride and run your +best, for the way is long to your kingdom, and the time short." + +So the child rode and ran his best, crossing hills and valleys, broad +streams and foaming torrents. Here and there he saw people at work or +at play, and on these he looked eagerly. + +"Perhaps, when they see me," he said, "they will run to meet me, and +will crown me with a golden crown, and lead me to their palace and +throne me there as king!" + +But the folk were all busy with their tasks or their sport, and none +heeded him, or left their business for him; and still he must fare +forward alone, for the Way called him. + +Also, he came upon many travellers like himself, some coming toward him, +others passing him by. On these, too, he looked earnestly, and would +stop now one, now another, and question him. + +"Do you know," he asked, "of any kingdom in these parts where the crown +is ready and the folk wait for a king?" + +Then one would laugh, and another weep, and another jeer, but all alike +shook their heads. + +"I am seeking crown and kingdom for myself," cried one; "is it likely +that I can be finding one for you, too? Each one for himself, and the +Way for all!" + +Another said: "You seek in vain. There are no crowns, only fools' caps +with asses' ears and bells that jingle in them." + +But others, and these they who had been longest on the way, only looked +on him, some sadly, some kindly, and made no answer; and still he fared +onward, for the Way called him. + +Now and then he stopped to help some poor soul who had fallen into +trouble, and when he did that the way lightened before him, and he felt +the heart light within him; but at other times the hurry was strong on +him, so that he would turn away his face, and shut his ears to the cries +that rang in them; and when he did that, the way darkened, and +oftentimes he stumbled himself, and fell into pits and quagmires, and +must cry for help, sometimes on those to whom he had refused it. + +By and by he forgot about the crown and the kingdom; or if he thought of +them, it was but as a far-off dream of dim gold, such as one sees at +morning when the sun breaks through the mist. But still he knew that the +way was long and the time short, and still he rode and ran his best. + +At the last he was very weary, and his feet could carry him no further, +when, looking up, he saw that the way came to an end before him, and +there was a gate, and one in white sitting by it, who beckoned to him. +Trembling, yet glad, the child drew near, and knew the Angel who had +spoken to him at the beginning. + +"Welcome!" said the Angel, "you come in good time. And what of the Way?" + +"I came as fast as I could," said the child, "but many things hindered +me, and now I am weary, and can go no further." + +"But what did you find on the way?" asked the Angel. + +"Oh! I found joy and sorrow," said the child, "good measure of both; but +never a crown, such as you promised me, and never a kingdom." + +"Oh, dear, foolish child," said the Angel. "You are wearing your crown. +It is of purest silver, and shines like white frost; and as for your +kingdom, the name of it is Rest, and here the entrance to it." + + + + +THE GRUMPY SAINT + + +Once upon a time there was a Grumpy Saint, who thought that all the +world were sinners, himself included. He lived in a little cabin by the +roadside, and his life was a burden to him on account of the passers-by. + +They gave him no peace. Now it was a poor man asking for food. + +"Go along with you!" said the Grumpy Saint. "It is an abomination to +feed sturdy beggars like you." + +And he gave the man his dinner, and went hungry. + +Again, it was an old woman, creeping along the road, bent double under a +heavy burden. + +"Shame on you!" said the Grumpy Saint. "Why are you not at home, +tending your fire, instead of gadding along the road in this fashion?" + +And he took the burden, and carried it all the way to the woman's house, +and came back grumbling. + +Still again it was a child, who had lost its way and came crying to his +door. + +"Please take me home!" said the child. + +"You should not have come out!" said the Saint. "Where is your home?" + +"Miles away!" said the child. "And I am tired; please carry me!" + +"Stuff and nonsense!" said the Saint. "Don't talk to me!" + +And he wrapped the child in his own coat (for it was winter), and +carried him miles through the snow to his home; and then trudged back +again, but without the coat, for the folk were poor. + +And so it went on. + +One day the Grumpy Saint died, and went to Heaven, a place in which he +had never believed. As he entered that country, the first person he met +was an Angel, with a bright gold aureole round her head, and in her hand +a staff of lilies. + +"Welcome!" said the Angel. "Welcome, dear and great saint! I am sent to +greet you, and lead you to the feast that is making in your honor." + +"Some mistake!" said the Grumpy Saint. "I don't know what you are +talking about, and I don't like play-acting. What place is this?" + +"This is Heaven!" said the Angel. + +"Nonsense!" said the Saint. "I don't believe in Heaven." + +"Yes, but you _are_ in it," said the Angel, "which is of more +consequence." + +"And who may you be?" asked the Saint. "I seem to know your face." + +"Yes!" said the Angel. "I am the old woman you helped with the burden; +don't you remember? the rest are waiting inside, all the people whom you +loved and helped. Come with me!" + +"I don't know what you are talking about!" said the Saint. "But if I am +to go with you, first take off that ridiculous object on your head! I +don't like play-acting, I tell you, and I have never believed in this +kind of thing." + +The Angel smiled; and leading him to a clear pool that lay beside the +road, bade him look in. He looked, and saw two white-clad figures +bending over the water, and round the head of each the shining circle. + +"Bless my soul!" cried the Grumpy Saint. "I've got one too!" + +"To be sure!" said the Angel. + +"Preposterous!" said the Grumpy Saint. + + + + +THE HOUSEKEEPER + + +One day Love went to and fro in his house, looked from door and window, +and had no rest. + +"I am weary," he said, "of this little house. Strait are the walls of +it, and narrow the windows, and from them always the same things to see. +I must be free; I must fly, or of what use are my wings?" + +So he took his red robe about him and flew out, leaving door and window +streaming wide to the cold wind. + +But when he was gone came one in a little gown of green, (green for +hope, Sweetheart; green for hope!) and entered the house, and shut door +and window; swept the hearth clean and mended the fire, and then set +herself down and sang, and minded her seam. Ever when the flame burned +low she built it up, and now and then she looked out of window to see +if any one were coming; but mostly she sat and sang, and kept the house +tidy and warm. + +Now by and by Love was weary with flying hither and yon; cold he was, +too, and night coming on; and as the dusk fell, he saw a light shining +bright on the edge of the wold. + +"Where there is light there will be warmth!" said Love; and he flew +near, and saw that it was his own little house. + +"Oh! who keeps my house alight?" cried Love. + +He opened the door, and the air came warm to greet him. + +"Oh! who keeps my house warm?" cried Love. And he looked, and saw one in +a little gown of green, (green for hope, Sweetheart; oh! green for +hope!) mending the fire, and singing as she worked. + +"Who are you, who keep my house?" asked Love. + +"Kindness is my name!" said the little housekeeper. + +"Outside it is cold and empty," said Love, "and the wind blows over the +waste; may I come in and warm me by the fire?" + +"Oh! and welcome!" said Kindness. "It was for you I kept it." + +"My red robe is torn and draggled," said Love. "May I wrap me in the +gown you are making?" + +"Oh! and welcome," said Kindness. "It is for you it was making, and now +it is finished." + +Love bent over the fire and warmed his poor cold hands. + +"Oh!" he cried; "now that I am back in my house I would never leave it +again. But what of my wings, lest they put the flight in me once more?" + +"Suppose I clip them," said Kindness, "with my little scissors!" + +"How are your scissors called, dear?" + +"Peace-and-Comfort is their name!" said Kindness. + +So Kindness clipped the wings of Love; and this one swept the hearth, +and that one mended the fire, and all went well while they kept the +house together. + + + + +BROTHER BARNABAS + + +One came to Brother Barnabas seeking consolation. + +"Ah!" said the good Brother. "My heart bleeds for you. You are in +affliction, bereft of some one dearer, it may be, than life itself. My +sympathy--" + +"No!" said the man. "My friends, such as they are, are all living." + +"I see!" said Brother Barnabas. "Bodily pain has set its sharp tooth in +you; that is indeed hard to bear. Let me--" + +"No!" said the man. "I am in good health, so far as that goes." + +"Alas!" said Brother Barnabas. "My poor brother, then it is sin that +weighs upon you, the cruellest burden of all. Truly, I grieve for you." + +"What do you mean?" said the man. "I have never broken a commandment in +my life." + +"Ah!" said Brother Barnabas. "I begin to perceive--" + +"I was sure you would!" said the man. "I am misunderstood--" + +"_Not by me!_" said Brother Barnabas. "Begone!" and he shut the door on +him. + + + + +THE FATES + + +The high Fates sat weaving, weaving at their loom, and I, poor soul, +came crying at the door, asking a boon at their hands. + +Those great ladies did not turn their heads, nor stint the flying +shuttle; but one of them spoke, and she the youngest, and her voice was +like the wind over the sea. + +"What would you?" she said. + +And I said, "That which you had of me yesterday." + +"Is it your sin, that turned your cup blood red?" + +"Nay; for I drained the cup, and washed it clean with my tears." + +"Is it your sorrow, that changed the green world to black about you?" + +"Nay; for I wrapped me in it as in a mantle, and now I should go cold +without it." + +"What then?" she asked; and ever as she spoke, back and forth, back and +forth, the shuttle flew. + +"Oh, what but my blunder! when I would make a path for my Love's white +feet, and set instead a snare for them, to her hurt?" + +Then those high ladies spoke all together; cold, sweet, steadfast were +the voices of them, and the shuttle humming through. + +"Even now the shuttle is threaded with your fault, and naught may stay +its way. Go, poor soul, empty and crying as you came; yet take one +comfort with you. Even of this, even of this, the Web had need!" + + + + +THE STEPS + + +"When you come to the city, seek out the House of Wisdom, for it is the +best house, and there you shall do well." + +That was what the old people said to the boy when he started on his +journey, and he kept the saying well in mind. + +"How shall I know the house?" he had asked them; and they answered, "By +the look of the steps before the door, and by the number of people who +go in and out. More we may not tell you." + +The boy pondered these sayings as he journeyed. + +"It will be a fine house, no doubt," he said. "I shall know it by its +size and splendor; but as for what they said of the steps, I make little +of that part." + +By and by he came to the city, and looked about him eagerly for the +House of Wisdom. Presently, on his right, he saw a house of plain yet +stately aspect. Clear were its windows and high, and from one a face +looked at him of a reverend man, calm and kind. + +"Might that be Wisdom?" thought the boy. Then he looked at the steps, +and saw them high and steep, and shining white, as if they had little +use. The door stood open wide, but few came or went through it. + +"This cannot be the House of Wisdom!" said the boy. "I must seek +farther." + +So he went farther. And presently he saw on his left a house rich and +gay of aspect, shining with gold, and all the windows flung up to the +air; and from one window a face of a fair woman laughed on him, and +beckoned, and waved a tinsel scarf with bells that tinkled sweetly on +his ear. + +"Oh," said the boy, "if this might but be the House of Wisdom! but what +of the steps before the door?" + +He looked at the steps; and they were wide and shallow, and trodden into +holes and valleys by many feet; and up those steps, and through the +open door, a throng was constantly passing, laughing and singing, and +pelting one another with flowers and spangles. + +"Ah," said the boy, "this is, indeed, the House of Wisdom! for true it +is that I can tell by the steps, and by the people who go in and out." + +And he entered the House of Folly. + + + + +THE GLASS + + +"This is extremely interesting!" said the man. "You say that I am not +one being but many, and that your glass will show me my component parts +as separate entities?" + +"Precisely!" said the Wandering Magician. + +The man looked in the glass. + +"Here I see several beings!" he said. "Some of them are +distinguished-looking, that one on horseback, for example, and the one +with the lyre. But others have a frivolous air, and there is one with +positively a low expression; and yet he is attractive too, when I look +closer, and I seem to know him. What are these creatures?" + +"These are your tastes!" said the Wandering Magician. + +"Oh!" said the man. "Well, some of them are certainly elegant and +refined. But whom have we here? what strange pigmies are these?" + +"Your virtues!" said the Magician. + +"Dear me!" said the man. "Yes, to be sure, I recognize them. But what +makes them so small?" + +"This is not a magnifying glass!" said the Magician. + +"But they are pretty!" said the man. "Beautiful, I may say. That little +fellow with the twinkle in his eye and his coat out at elbows; he is +charming, if I do say it. But what is going on now? here comes a crowd +of big, hulking, ruffianly fellows, jostling the little people and +driving them to the wall. What a villainous-looking set! Their faces are +wholly strange to me; what are they?" + +"Your vices!" said the Wandering Magician. + +But when the man would have fallen upon him, he was gone. + + + + +IN THE SHADED ROOM + + +The shaded room was still; the doctor and the nurse sat watching by the +bedside; the firelight crept into the corners and whispered to the +shadows: there was no other sound. + +"You think you are ready to go?" asked the Angel-who-attends-to-things. + +"Yes!" said the man. "I have drained the Cup from brim to bitter lees; I +have read the Book from cover to cover. I am ready." + +"Humph!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "Well, come along!" and +he led the man out, but did not shut the door after him. + +The man had lived in state and splendor, and he had thought that some +ceremony would attend his departure, but there was nothing of the sort. +The only change was, that as he went along the Angel seemed to be +growing very tall, and he very little, so that he had to reach up to +hold the strong white hand, and his feet were well-nigh taken from under +him by the sweep of the great white robes; also he felt afraid and +foolish, he knew not why. + +So they came at last to a gate, through which many children were passing +with glad faces, carrying tablets of amber and pearl; and beside the +gate sat another Angel, writing in a book; and when a child passed in, +this Angel nodded and smiled to him, and wrote a word in his book. + +Now the Angel of the Gate looked up, and saw the +Angel-who-attends-to-things, and beside him the man, holding fast to his +hand, and feeling afraid and foolish. + +"From the Primary Department?" asked the Angel of the Gate. + +"Yes!" said the other, who never wasted words. + +The Angel of the Gate looked the man over carefully. "His hands are +dirty!" he said at length. + +"Yes!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things; "he has not learned to keep +them clean." + +"And there is mud on his feet!" + +"Yes, he will walk in the mire." + +"And his clothes are torn, and stained with blood." + +"Yes, he has been quarrelling with his brother and beating him." + +At this the man found his voice and cried out, though he felt more +afraid and foolish than ever, and his voice sounded high and thin, like +that of a tiny child. + +"I have no brother!" said the man. + +The two Angels looked at each other. + +"You see!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "I knew how it would +be." + +Then he turned to the man. "Run along back," he said, "and try to do +better next time. I left the door open for you." + +And in the shaded room, while the firelight whispered to the shadows in +the corners, the doctor rose from the bedside, and spoke softly to the +nurse. + +"The crisis is past," he said, "he will live." + + + + +HELL GATE + + +Hell Gate clanged behind the youth, and those without stood and looked +one upon another. + +First came his friend, and said to the keeper of the gate: + +"Let him out! he is young, and his work still to do. Who knows but he +may amend, and do it yet?" + +Next came his Love, and clasped the bars, and wept upon them. + +"Let him out!" she cried. "We are too young to die, and without him I +cannot live." + +Last came his mother, for she had a long way to come. + +"What is all this ado?" she said. "Let me in to him!" and she broke the +bars and entered. + + + + +THE THORN + + +When the youth started, he passed through the Forbidden Wood, and +wandered there, plucking and tasting the fruit, smelling the flowers, +evil and sweet; and as he plucked and smelled, it chanced that a thorn +entered his breast, for it lay open. He took little heed, for he was +young, and the life strong in him; so the thorn made its way in, and +presently was buried in the flesh; and he forgot it, for it gave him no +hurt. + +By and by he came out of that wood, and shook the dust of it from his +feet, and set his face toward the mountains, for a voice told him that +there he should find his life and his Love. And so it fell, for as he +fared on, his Love came to meet him, and he knew her, and she him. Then +each held out arms of longing, and embraced the other tenderly, +speaking fond words; but when the maiden pressed her arms about the man, +a pang shot through his breast, bitter as death; and he trembled, for he +knew it for the piercing of the thorn. + +The man set his teeth, that he might make no outcry, and then he looked +at his Love: and see! she was snow-pale, and held her heart with both +hands, as if in pain. + +"What is it?" cried the man. "What hurts my Love?" and she answered, "I +know not; a pang shot through my heart, bitter as death." + +"Oh, Love, what like was the pang?" cried the man; and heard her words +before she spoke; for she said, "Like the piercing of a thorn!" + + + + +THE SERPENT + + +Three boys were playing together in a field; and as they played, one +passing by called to them: "Beware! in the corner of that field is a +poisonous serpent, whose bite is death." + +"Alas!" said one child. "How terrible, to think that anything evil +should be in a place so lovely. Let me flee from it!" and he wept, and +ran from the place. + +"Why," said the second child, "should such a thing be here? what is the +reason of it?" and he found him a safe place, and sat down to ponder on +the matter. + +The third child picked up a stone. "Show it to me!" he said. + + + + +IF THIS SHOULD BE + +I + + +In the Place of Spirits, where many come seeking a home, and all who +earn shall find one, a band of child-spirits played about their door, +singing, and crowning one another with flowers. And as they played, +there drifted by a gray Shape, and stayed beside the gate, and wrung its +shadowy hands. + +Said the eldest child to the Angel who was their guardian; "Dear, there +is one seeking a home; shall we call her in?" + +"Oh, hush! oh, hush!" said the Angel. "You may not speak to her." + +"But," said the second child, "she stops at our gate, and gazes at us +with mournful eyes. Let us call her in!" + +"Oh, hush! oh, hush!" said the Angel. "You may not look at her." + +"Nay!" cried the youngest; "but she holds out her arms, and makes a moan +like the wind at night. Why may we not call her in?" + +Then the Angel wept, for she had been a woman. + +"Must I tell you?" she cried. "It is she who should have been your +mother, and she would not." + +The children gazed, with calm, bright eyes. "What is a mother?" they +asked. + +"Alas! alas!" said the Angel; and her tears fell down like rain. + +"Alas! alas!" moaned the gray Shape at the gate, and beat the shadow +that was her breast, and trailed away in the gathering dusk. + + + + +IF THIS SHOULD BE + +II + + +When the Little Sister went away, it was in such haste that she left her +convent robes behind; and this troubled her so that she spoke of it to +the Angel at the Gate. "You see," she said, "I had no idea that I was +coming; I fell asleep in my cell, and woke up in this beautiful homelike +place. But these white garments are not suitable for me; could I find a +black robe, do you think?" + +"Oh no!" said the Angel; "we all wear white here, and it is so much +prettier and more becoming. Besides, you must make haste, for they have +been waiting long for you." + +"Who have been waiting?" asked the Little Sister in wonder. + +"The children, to be sure!" said the Angel. "See! there they come, +running to meet you." + +The Little Sister looked, and there came hastening toward her a lovely +band, little children and older ones, with floating locks and starry +eyes, and all the eyes fixed on her with looks of love, and all the arms +stretched out to her with gestures of longing. + +"Oh, the darling, darling children!" cried the Little Sister. "Oh, the +little angels! Now I know that this is heaven indeed." + +She fell on her knees, and the children clustered round her, caressing +her, and murmuring sweet words in her ear; and all in a moment the +hunger that had been at her heart through the years was stilled, and she +opened her arms and gathered the children to her breast and wept; happy +tears were those! + +"Sweethearts," cried the Little Sister; "dear loves, tell me, whose +light and joy and blessing are you?" + +"Yours, of course!" answered the children. + + + + +THE FEAST + + +The little Prince was coming; and in the dim, rich house that was his, +some children were making ready a feast for him. They strewed sweet +flowers, and lighted the candles, and made ready the table, white and +fair, with the gold and silver service. + +"It should stand here!" said one. + +"Nay!" said another; "this is the place for it; and the candles must be +over yonder." And he moved them. + +"That I will never consent to!" said the first. "Let me do things +properly, while you go and change your dress for a suitable one." + +"I shall not change my dress!" said the second child. + +"Oh, shame!" said the first. + +While they wrangled, the children of the wood peeped in at the door, +ragged and rosy and bright-eyed, and laughed, and ran away. + +"Let us make a feast too," they said, "even if we have no fine things." + +They set them down under a great oak tree that grew beside the way, and +one gathered acorn cups, and another pulled burdock leaves and laid them +for a cloth, and a third plucked the wild strawberries that shone like +rubies in the grass. + +"Here is a fine feast!" cried the wood children. + +Just then along came the little Prince, and they called to him, "Come +and play with us, and share our feast!" + +"With all my heart!" said the little Prince. "But are there not other +children in the house yonder who would like to join us?" + +"Nay, they are busy quarrelling!" said the wood children. + +"Then we do not want them!" said the little Prince. He sat down with +them under the oak tree, and they all ate and drank and were right +merry. + +But the children in the dim, rich house pulled the table this way and +that, and moved the lights hither and yon, and looked at their delicate +robes and sighed: "The little Prince is long in coming!" they said. + + + + +THE SPIRIT + + +A man was toiling, seeking, toiling, by hot sun and cold moon, with +pickaxe and with spade; and as he toiled there came a bright Spirit, and +looked him in the face, and smiled. + +"Who are you, fair Spirit?" asked the man. And the other answered, "My +name is Truth!" + +Then the man threw down his pick and spade, and ran, and brought costly +robes and wrapped the Spirit in them; and set him on a throne, and bound +him fast with chains of gold, and covered his face with a veil of +precious web, and fell down and worshipped him. Happy man was he! + +Now by and by as he worshipped a traveller came by that way, and stopped +to look. + +"Fair answer to your prayers, brother!" said the traveller. "What God do +you worship?" + +And the man said, "The Spirit of Truth." + +"Nay!" said the other; "how can that be? I met that spirit but now upon +the road. Gipsying along he was, light-foot, light-clad, and over his +shoulder pickaxe and spade." + +Then the man cried out in terror, and ran to the throne, and pulled the +veil away, and tore the robes apart: and lo! the veil holding empty air, +and the great robes folded in upon themselves, and the gold chains +binding them. + + + + +THE ROOTS + + +A child found in its garden a plant. Fair and stately it was, full of +rosy buds, with green leaves strong and luminous. The child admired it +greatly. + +"How fair it is!" he said. "How full of light and fragrance! but how +does it grow? One should know that." + +He looked down, and saw that the plant came up out of the ground. + +"This is strange!" he said. "How should so fair a thing come up out of +this black and dirty soil? I must look to this!" + +He dug away the soil, and found the roots of the plant, bare and +twisted, clinging to the soil and dark with the touch of it. + +"Ah!" said the child, "this is terrible. Has that fair crown of rose and +green drawn its life from so foul a source as this? Oh, sorrow and +shame!" and he wept, and wrung his hands. + +As he sorrowed, the Angel of the Garden passed by, with her arms full of +flowers and fruit. + +"Little one," she said, "have you anything for me?" + +"Alas!" said the child. "Look! I had this fair plant, the sweetest in +the world, but I find that its life grows out of the black and ugly +mould; its roots are black with it. Look! the flower begins to droop!" + +"Yes," said the Angel. "Oh, the pity! you have killed it." + + + + +ALONG THE WAY + + +In the early morning, when the dew was bright on the grass, a child +passed along the highway, and sang as he went. It was spring, and the +ferns were unrolling their green bundles, and the hepatica showed purple +under her gray fur. The child looked about him with eager, happy eyes, +rejoicing in all he saw, and answering the birds' songs with notes as +gay as their own. Now and then he dropped a seed here or there, for he +had a handful of them; sometimes he threw one to the birds; again he +dropped one for the squirrels; and still again he would toss one into +the air for very play, for that was what he loved best. + +Now it chanced that he passed by a spot where the earth lay bare, with +no tree or plant to cover its brown breast. + +"Oh!" said the child. "Poor place, will nothing grow in you? here is a +seed for you, and now I will plant it properly." + +So he planted the seed properly, and smoothed the earth over it, and +went his way singing, and looking at the white clouds in the sky and at +the green things unfolding around him. + +It was a long, long journey the child had to go. Many perils beset his +path, many toils he had to overpass, many wounds and bruises he got on +the way. When he returned, one would hardly have known, to look at him, +that he was still a child. The day had been cruelly hot, and still the +afternoon sun beat fiercely down on the white road. His clothes were +torn and dusty; he toiled on, and sighed as he went, longing for some +spot of shade where he might sit down to rest. + +Presently he saw in the distance a waving of green, and a cool shadow +stretching across the white glowing road: and he drew near, and it was a +tree, young and vigorous, spreading its arms abroad, mantled in green +leaves that whispered and rustled. + +Thankfully the child threw himself down in the pleasant shade, and +rested from his weary journey; and as he rested, he raised his eyes to +the green whispering curtain above him, and blessed the hand that +planted the tree. + +The little green leaves nodded and rustled, and whispered to one +another: + +"Yes! yes! it is himself he is blessing. But he does not know, and that +is the best of all!" + + + + +THE GRAVE DIGGERS + + +A youth stood in the doorway of his house and looked out upon the road +he was to travel. + +"Alas!" he said. "It is a rough and stony road, and I am far from +strong: also my feet are tender, and I cannot bear pain. How shall I +take this hard journey?" + +Then, as he sighed and looked, he was ware of two coming towards him +with pick and mattock on their shoulders. Swiftly they came, and soon +they were at his side, fawning on him, and speaking in soft, wheedling +voices. Their faces were eager and servile, their eyes bright as flame. + +"Dear youth," they said, "we are come to smooth the road for you. It is +our trade; look, we have our tools with us! Give us but leave and we +will work for you gladly, and ask no pay." + +"What men are ye?" asked the youth. + +"We are called Temptation and Opportunity," they answered; "but what +matters this name or that? we seek but to serve you. Rest you still, and +soon the way shall be clear before you." + +So the youth went back into his house and set him down, and watched how +all day long the two toiled apart with mattock and pick, smoothing and +levelling, lifting stones out of the way, and hewing down brambles and +tangled trees. But at night he laid him down and slept: and then those +two ran speedily together, and with fierce looks and eager hands they +dug and howked a grave in the earth. Deep it was, and lay straight +across the road; yet so cunningly placed that it could not be seen till +one was close upon it. + +Morning came, and the youth stood at his door again, and saw the way +clear and smooth before him, and the two bowing low, with smiling faces +and fawning hands stretched out. + +"Come, good Master!" they cried. "Come, dear youth, and let us bring you +on your way!" + + + + +THE SICK CHILD + + +The sick child sat at his window and looked out on the summer world. He +was sad at heart, for pain racked him, and weakness held him still; but +yet he smiled, because that pleased his mother. + +"I am of no use in the world," said the child to himself; "I am of less +worth than yonder broken bough that lies on the ground, for that at +least gives trouble to no one, and by and by it will make a fire to warm +some poor soul. But still I must smile, lest my mother should be sad." + +Presently the old field mouse who lived over the way came out of her +house, with a tiny brown velvet bundle in her mouth. It was one of her +eight young ones, and she was taking it to a new place, for the mole who +was their landlord had turned them out. She had taken five of the +little ones to the new house, but now she was weary, and her jaws ached +sadly with holding the heavy little creatures. + +"I cannot carry them all!" she said. "The rest must die, since it cannot +be helped." + +Just then she looked up, and saw the child smiling at the window. + +"Look!" she said to herself. "That child has been watching me. He smiles +with pleasure at the beauty of my young ones, but he has not seen the +prettiest one yet. It will never do to give up now; I must try again, +and let him see that there are eight, all the handsomest of their +family." + +So she tried again, and brought all the eight in safety to their new +home. + +By and by a horse came along the road, dragging a heavy load. He was +old, and his bones ached, and the collar hurt his neck. + +"Why should I not give up," he said to himself, "and refuse to go on? my +master could only beat me, and he does that as it is. If I were dead, I +should not feel the blows; why should I struggle further with this +burden?" + +Just then he happened to lift his eyes, and saw the child smiling at the +window. + +"Ah!" he said, "that child is smiling at me. He sees that I was once a +fine animal; he knows good blood when he sees it. Ah! if he had seen me +in my youth! But I can still show him something." And he arched his neck +proudly, and stepped out bravely, tossing his head, and the load came +more easily after him. + +By and by a man passed by, walking slowly, with bent head and sorrowful +look. He had lost the treasure of his heart, and the whole world was +black about him. "Why should I live longer?" he said to himself. "I have +nothing to live for in this world of misery. Let me lie down and die; in +death I can at least forget my pain and the pain of others." + +As he spoke, he lifted his eyes by chance, and saw the child smiling at +the window. + +"Come!" said the man. "There at least is one happy heart; and he +smiles, as if he were glad to see me pass. He is a sick child, too, +pale and thin; I must not cast a shadow on his cheerful day. And indeed, +the sun is bright and warm, even if my joy be cold." + +He smiled and nodded to the child, and the child nodded to him, and +waved his hand, and the man went on, carrying the smile warm at his +heart, and took up the burden of life again. + +Now it was evening. The child was weary. His head drooped on his bosom, +and his eyes closed. Then his mother came, and lifted him from his +chair, and laid him in his little bed. + +"God bless him!" she said softly. "He has had a happy day, for he is +smiling even in his sleep." + + + + +AT LONG LAST + + +"Heart-of-mine, are you come at last?" + +"At long, long last, Beloved!" + +"Was it so long?" + +"Long as grief, cold as the stone above your grave, empty as the noonday +sky!" + +"Oh! how was it empty, when I left the cup brimming over for you? +Heart-of-mine, whom met you by the way?" + +"Only a man, crippled in the mire, cursing as he struggled. I shut my +ears against his foul speech and passed on." + +"Oh! if it were my brother, whom you should have helped! whom else?" + +"Only a woman, bowed under a burden; my own was more than I could bear, +and I let her be." + +"Alas! if it were my sister, and in her pack the balm that should have +healed you! Whom else again?" + +"None else, save children: they cried about my path, but how could I +stay for them while you waited?" + +"Alas! if among the children were those I might not bear to you! And +fare you well, Heart-of-mine, for I must be gone, and now the time is +long indeed." + +"Oh! whither, Beloved of my soul, from my arms that clasp yet cannot +hold you?" + +"Heart-of-mine, where but back to earth, to do the work you left undone, +to gather up, with patience and with toil, the sheaves you left +behind!" + + + + +GILLYFLOWER GENTLEMAN + + +"Why do you play alone, dear," asked the Play Angel, "and look so sadly +over your shoulder at the other children?" + +"Because they are so selfish!" said the child. "They will not play with +me." + +"Oh, the pity!" said the Angel. "Tell me all about it." + +"I want to play one game, and they all want to play another!" said the +child. "It is very unkind of them." + +"Did you ever play Gillyflower Gentleman?" asked the Angel. + +"No!" said the child. "What is it?" + +"You shall see!" said the Angel. "Let us ask the others if they know +it." + +The other children did not know it, but they were eager to learn, and +soon they were all playing Gillyflower Gentleman; they played till all +their breath was gone, and they had to sit down on the haycocks to rest. + +"That was a great game!" said the first child. "I will play yours now, +if you wish me to." + +"We were just going to tell you that we would play yours!" said the +other children. So they played both, and the Play Angel went back to her +work. + + + + +THE JUDGMENT + + +"_Of judgment, because the Prince of this World is judged._"-- + +Now came the day when the Prince should be brought to judgment. Slowly +he came, under the weight of his fetters, that clanged about his wrists +and feet. His head was low on his breast, and his eyes heavy; so he +stood before the judgment seat, and spoke not, nor raised his eyes. + +The little Judge looked on him, and sighed, and spoke. + +"It was you who saw me hungry and naked and cold, and drew your furs +round you and passed by." + +"Yea!" said the Prince. + +"It was you who set me cruel tasks, and smote me when I fainted under +them." + +"Yea!" said the Prince. + +"It was you who cast me into prison, into darkness and bitterness as of +death." + +"Yea!" said the Prince. + +"Alas!" said the little Judge. "Poor soul, did you know no better?" + +When the Prince heard that a great sob burst from him, and he fell on +his face before the judgment seat, and his fetters clanged loud on the +stone. + +Oh! then came little feet pattering down the steps, and little hands +lifted him, and he rose to his feet; but the chains lay where they fell. + +"Come, Brother!" said the little Judge. "We will go back, and begin +again together!" + + + + +THE BLIND CHILD + + +"Mother," said the blind child, "what a pity it is that everybody in +this village, except you, is so ugly!" + +"Bless your heart, my darling," said the mother; "why do you say that?" + +"I was sitting by the fountain," said the blind child, "listening to the +falling water, and the neighbors came to fill their pitchers, and I +heard them talking. It was terrible! it seems that every one in the +whole village is either bald or cross-eyed, wrinkled or misshapen. All +save you, mother!" + +"Bless your heart," said the mother; and she looked at her gray, worn +face in the little glass that hung on the wall. + +"They did not like to praise your beauty before me!" cried the blind +child. "They spoke your name, and then said, 'Oh! hush, there is the +child!' Was it not foolish of them, mother? as if I did not know!" + +"Bless your heart!" said the mother. + + + + +THE CAKE + + +Once a Cake would go seek his fortune in the world, and he took his +leave of the Pan he was baked in. + +"I know my destiny," said the Cake. "I must be eaten, since to that end +I was made; but I am a good cake, if I say it who should not, and I +would fain choose the persons I am to benefit." + +"I don't see what difference it makes to you!" said the Pan. + +"But imagination is hardly your strong point!" said the Cake. + +"Huh!" said the Pan. + +The Cake went on his way, and soon he passed by a cottage door where sat +a woman spinning, and her ten children playing about her. + +"Oh!" said the woman, "what a beautiful cake!" and she put out her hand +to take him. + +"Be so good as to wait a moment!" said the Cake. "Will you kindly tell +me what you would do with me if I should yield myself up to you?" + +"I shall break you into ten pieces," said the woman, "and give one to +each of my ten children. So you will give ten pleasures, and that is a +good thing." + +"Oh, that would be very nice, I am sure," said the Cake; "but if you +will excuse me for mentioning it, your children seem rather dirty, +especially their hands, and I confess I should like to keep my frosting +unsullied, so I think I will go a little further." + +"As you will!" said the woman. "After all, the brown loaf is better for +the children." + +So the Cake went further, and met a fair child, richly dressed, with +coral lips and eyes like sunlit water. When the child saw the Cake, he +said like the woman, "Oh, what a beautiful Cake!" and put out his hand +to take it. + +"I am sure I should be most happy!" said the Cake. "And you will not +take it amiss, I am confident, if I ask with whom you will share me." + +"I shall not share you with any one!" said the child. "I shall eat you +myself, every crumb. What do you take me for?" + +"Good gracious!" cried the Cake. "This will never do. Consider my +size,--and yours! You would be very ill!" + +"I don't care!" said the child. "I'd rather be ill than give any away." +And he fixed greedy eyes on the Cake, and stretched forth his hand +again. + +"This is really terrible!" cried the Cake. "What is one's frosting to +this? I will go back to the woman with the ten children." + +He turned and ran back, leaving the child screaming with rage and +disappointed greed. But as he ran, a hungry Puppy met him, and swallowed +him at a gulp, and went on licking his chops and wagging his tail. + +"Huh!" said the Pan. + + + + +THE SERMON + + +The minister had just finished his great sermon. The air still quivered +with his burning words, and the people sat erect, disturbed, +embarrassed; yet still he lingered a moment in his place. + +"Is there," he asked, "one here in whose breast these words strike like +a barbed arrow, for the truth that is in them?" and he sat down. + +"That was hard on John," said old James; "but he deserves it, every +word." + +"A blow from the shoulder for James!" said old John; "time he got one +too, if it is not too late." + +"I wonder if either of those two old sinners will take his medicine and +be helped by it," said old William. + +But the little saint, the little saint, hurried home, and knelt by her +little bed, and cried aloud in her anguish: "My God, my God, have mercy +on me, and give me for this stone a heart of flesh!" + + + + +THE TANGLED SKEIN + + +"My dear child," said the Angel-who-attends-to-things, "why are you +crying so very hard?" + +"Oh dear! oh dear!" said the child. "No one ever had such a dreadful +time before, I do believe, and it all comes of trying to be good. Oh +dear! Oh dear! I wish I was bad; then I should not have all this +trouble." + +"Yes, you would," said the Angel; "a great deal worse. Now tell me what +is the matter!" + +"Look!" said the child. "Mother gave me this skein to wind, and I +promised to do it. But then father sent me on an errand, and it was +almost school-time, and I was studying my lesson and going on the +errand and winding the skein, all at the same time, and now I have got +all tangled up in the wool, and I cannot walk either forward or back, +and oh! dear me, what ever _shall_ I do?" + +"Sit down!" said the Angel. + +"But it is school-time!" said the child. + +"Sit down!" said the Angel. + +"But father sent me on an errand!" said the child. + +"SIT DOWN!" said the Angel; and he took the child by her shoulders and +set her down. + +"Now sit still!" he said, and he began patiently to wind up the skein. +It was wofully tangled, and knotted about the child's hands and feet; it +was a wonder she could move at all; but at last it was all clear, and +the Angel handed her the ball. + +"I thank you so very much!" said the child. "I was not naughty, was I?" + +"Not naughty, only foolish; but that does just as much harm sometimes." + +"But I was doing right things!" said the child. + +"But you were doing them in the wrong way!" said the Angel. "It is good +to do an errand, and it is good to go to school, but when you have a +skein to wind you must sit still." + + + + +THE NURSLING + + +Yesterday, the kind nurse, Yesterday, the wise old woman, sat by the +fire with her nursling on her knee. + +"Still, my babe, be still!" she said. "Listen now, till I sing you a +song!" + +"Oh! I know all your songs," said the child. "I know them by heart, the +sleepy bed-time songs. But the lovely lady yonder, who smiles at me from +the doorway, sings a new song, new and strange, and sweet, sweet. If I +listen to her, may be I shall learn it." + +"Nay! listen not to her, the gipsy!" said Yesterday. "Bide here by the +fire with me, my babe, and I will tell you a story shall do you good to +hear." + +"Oh! I know all your stories," said the child, "know them every word, +and some of them are false, and all are dull. But the lovely lady who +beckons me from the doorway murmurs strange words, in a new tongue, yet +clear as light; if I go with her, may be I shall learn it." + +"Child, child," said the old nurse, "listen not to her gipsy talk; it is +full of peril, and these new words have wicked meanings. Come with me, +my darling, and I will show you my garden, full of sweet flowers and +delicate fruits and precious herbs. See! they have grown from all time, +and I gathered them from the four ways of the world, and all for you." + +The child laughed, and his laugh rang cruel clear, as when a bird sings +loud and merry over a new-made grave. + +"Your flowers are faded," he said. "I have tasted your fruits, every +one, and your precious herbs are but a handful of dry leaves and stalks. +But the lovely lady who holds out her hands to me from the doorway tells +me of things unknown, dim lands of furthest dawn, seas that no bark has +ever sailed. I will go with her and see them, and live my life." + +"Nay now, my child, my darling; stay with me by the fire, in the warm +sheltered room;" said Yesterday the nurse, the wise old woman. + +But the child was already gone, with To-morrow, the lovely lady with +sunrise in her eyes, laughter on her lips, and the knife hidden in her +hand. + + + + +WORMWOOD + + +All the morning the child ran about his field, smelling the sweet, +tasting the sweet, plucking the bright and gay; and as he plucked and +smelled and tasted, he found among the strawberries a dusky leaf that +was bitter in his mouth. "What is this?" he asked of the Angel beside +him; and the Angel said, "It is wormwood!" + +"Pluck it all up!" cried the child. "It is bitter and hateful; I will +have nought in my field but strawberries and roses." + +And the Angel smiled, with folded hands. + +Noon came, and afternoon, with long rays sloping westward; and the child +walked in his field with slow and thoughtful steps. There were no +flowers now in the grass, but everywhere a dusky leaf with dusky +berries; and the air was full of the fragrance of them, sweet and yet +bitter; bitter, yet oh, how sweet! + +"What is this," the child asked, "that is bitter, and yet sweeter than +aught else in the world?" + +And the Angel said, "It is wormwood!" + + + + +THE PIT + + +"_Though I make my bed in Hell...._" + +It was dark in the Pit. The air was heavy with poisonous vapors; the +walls were foul with the slime of uncounted generations; under foot was +the horror of the ages; yet still the man slept, for he was used to the +place, and his brain sodden with the fumes of it. But by and by, as he +slept, a sound crept into his ears, a weary, crying voice that went on +and on and would not still; till the man stirred uneasily in his sleep, +and awoke with the sound in his ears. + +"Who is this," he said, "that breaks my slumber?" + +He hearkened, and the voice went crying on: + +"Oh! the blackness and the horror! oh! the dreadful, dreadful place! +will none help me out?" + +"What ails you at the place?" asked the man. "One sleeps well enough, if +folk would but be quiet." + +And the voice went clamoring on; the piteousness of it might have +stirred the dead things under foot. + +"Oh! for one breath of God's pure air! for one glimpse of God's good +sunshine! Oh! the horror of it, to die in the foul dark! will none help +me out?" + +Then the man looked, for his eyes were used to the mirk of the Pit, and +saw beside him the face of a youth, glimmering white as the dead moon at +midday, and shining with tears and sweat of agony; and the lad was +tearing at the walls, trying to make a way out; but his hands slipped on +the slimy stones, and he fell back moaning and crying. + +"Here is a great ado!" said the man. "But if it goes so ill with you, I +will find a way out, if way there be." + +He rose from the wallow where he lay, and with his strong hands felt +along the walls, and found a crack between two great stones, and set his +strength to rend them apart; but they clung together like the lips of +Death. Long he struggled, yet could not stir them; and ever the doleful +voice beat like a bell in his ears, till it seemed to him that he must +give his life, so but that lad might go free. + +Suddenly he felt a touch upon him, and in that same moment the stones +moving under his hand: and looking, he was ware through the glimmering +dark of another hand laid on the stone, and of one toiling beside him, +striving even as he strove. Then the man set all the strength that was +in him, and the great stones crumbled apart, and through the opening the +fresh wind blew and the sun shone. + +Then those two, the man and he who had toiled beside him, lifted the +youth between them and brought him out into the open day; and the lad +cried out once more, sobbing now for pure joy, and kissed their hands +that had brought him out, and went singing on his way. + +But the man stayed, and looked on that one who had toiled beside him. +"Oh!" he said, "it was you!" + +"Who else?" said the other. + +"But how came you there?" asked the man. + +And the other answered, "I went in with you!" + + + + +HOSPITALITY + + +"I hear," said the hospitable man, "that my friend has come from over +seas. Now therefore let us do thus and so, for he is the man of all men +whom I delight to honor." + +So the hospitable man hurried to and fro all day, gathering this that +was rich, and that that was costly, and the other that was delicate; and +bidding his acquaintance come and help him do honor to his friend. + +Next day he met another friend, who was a physician. + +"Whither away so fast?" asked the hospitable man. + +"Do not stay me!" said the physician. "The case is urgent. I am going to +So-and-So." And he named the friend from over seas. + +"You distress me infinitely!" cried the hospitable man. "Is So-and-So +ill?" + +"Some rascal poisoned him last night," said the physician. "A bad +business. I doubt if he recovers." + +"Good God!" cried the hospitable man. "He dined with me last night." + +"Oh! was it you?" said the physician. + + + + +THE POT + + +The great Pot boiled and bubbled over the crackling flames. Fat and +lean, sweet and bitter, had gone to fill it, and all seethed merrily +together. "Hubble bubble!" said the Pot. + +Now it came to pass after a time that a certain part of what was within +rose to the top, and mantled there, frothing and eddying. + +"I am the cream!" it said. "This is my proper place, the top of the Pot. +Under me the mass seethes darkling, and from it I rise to light and air. +My glory rejoices; this is as it should be!" + +Now came the Cook, and lifted the lid of the Pot and looked in. "Ah!" he +said. "The scum has risen, and must be taken off, lest the meat be +spoiled." And he took it off. + +"Hubble bubble!" said the Pot. + + + + +THE BODY + + +"But you don't understand!" said the Soul. "It is my body that makes all +the trouble. Its nerves are all atwist, its brain does not work +properly, its heart is too small. _I_ am all right: if I could have +another chance, in a decently furnished body, you would see what a +different creature I should be." + +"Very well!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "I know several other +souls who are wishing for a change; you may try their bodies, and see if +you can suit yourself." + +The Soul thanked the Angel joyfully, and flew in the direction he +pointed out. Presently he came to the body of a fair woman, clad in +white, with roses in its hands. + +"This is beautiful!" said the Soul. "This is exactly what I want." He +crept in, and flowed through the white body, and it moved and rose up +with him, and went to and fro. + +But soon the Soul cried out: "Oh! this body pinches me; it is too tight. +Besides, it has the habit of fasting, and mortification, and I am used +to a body that smokes. This will never do!" And he crept out again, and +went further. + +Presently he came to a stalwart body of a man, with bones and sinews +knit of iron. + +"Ah!" said the Soul. "Beauty is after all a slight thing. Strength is +what one needs; this is the body for me." And he slipped in, and flowed +through the body, and it moved, and rose up with him, and walked with +swift and powerful strides. + +"Good heavens!" cried the Soul. "This will never do. This body is far +too big for me; I feel it all loose, and full of cold draughts. I shall +certainly get the rheumatism. And I don't care about these things it is +doing, hewing wood and carrying water for other people. I have made a +mistake; let me correct it before it is too late!" and he crept out. + +Going further, he came upon a body sunk in an easy-chair, clad in loose +and easy garb of a man, and by it a table with glasses and bottles: and +the Soul yearned toward it. "Ah!" cried the Soul. "After all, there is +nothing like one's own!" And he crept into the body, and flowed through +and through it; and the body stretched itself with a long, long sigh, +and put its hand out to the bottle, and drank, and chuckled to itself. + +"But how about those others who wanted a change?" asked the Soul of the +Angel-who-attends-to-things. "I trust I am not disappointing any of them +in taking up this dear old comfortable body again?" + +"Oh no!" said the Angel. "They did not like its looks at all, and +decided to go on to another world." + + + + +THE RULER. + + +When it was time for the Child to have lessons, the Teacher-Angel gave +him a sheet of paper, smooth and white, and a pencil, and a ruler. + +"Write as well as you can," he said; "and mind you keep the lines +straight!" + +The Child admired the ruler greatly; "I will put it up on the wall," he +said, "where I can see it always." So he put it up on the wall, and the +sunbeams, hardly brighter than itself, sparkled on it. + +"It must be pure gold," said the Child; "there is nothing else so +beautiful in the world." And then he began his task. + +By and by the lesson time was over, and the Teacher-Angel came to see +what had been done. The Child showed him the paper on which he had +written his task. Up and down went the lines, here and there, from side +to side of the sheet, which was covered with sprawling, straggling +letters. There were smudges, too, where he had tried to rub something +out; it was not a pretty page. + +"What is this?" asked the Teacher-Angel. "Where is your ruler?" + +"There it is," said the Child. "Up on the wall. It was so beautiful, I +put it up there where I could see it always. See where it hangs! But +methinks it is not so bright as it was." + +"No!" said the Teacher-Angel. "It would have been brighter if you had +used it." + +"But I admired it greatly," said the Child. + +"But your lines are crooked!" said the Angel. + + + + +THE TORCH-BEARER + + +A voice came ringing down the way: "Room! room for the Torch-bearer! +room for the keeper of the gates of To-morrow! room!" + +"Ah! yes," I said. "It is he, the great sage, who has lightened the +world-shadows this many a year. Who should bear the torch but he?" + +I looked, and the sage passed, his arms folded on his breast, his calm +eyes bent forward, seeing many things: but no torch was in his hand. + +And still the cry came ringing down the world's way: "Room for the +Torch-bearer! make way! make way for the keeper of the gates of +To-morrow!" + +"Ah!" I said. "It will be the mighty leader, then; he who so long has +marshalled our hearts, and led us whithersoever he would with a wave of +his hand. Hail to him, hail to the Master of Armies!" + +But as I looked, the Master passed, and his truncheon hung low by his +side, and his eyes looked downward, remembering; and no torch was in his +hand. + +Yet still, as I marvelled, came that great cry ringing down the world's +way, and now it sounded loud in my ears. + +"Room! room! make way, give place! the Torch-bearer comes. Make way for +the keeper of the gates of God!" + +And once more I looked. + +Ah! bare and dusty were her feet, the little woman; and she went bowed, +and stumbled on the rough stones, for the great torch hung heavy in her +hand, and heavy the babe on her arm: but he sat there as on a throne, +and laughed and leaped as he sat, and clutched the living torch and +shook it, flinging the blaze abroad, and the world-way lightened before +him. + + + + +THE STONE BLOCKS + + +"Why is your little sister crying, dear?" asked the Play Angel. "I +thought you were taking care of her." + +"So I am, taking beautiful care of her," said the child. "But the more +beautiful care I take, the more she cries. She does not like care to be +taken of her." + +"Let me see!" said the Play Angel; and she sat down on the nursery +floor. "Now show me what you have done." + +"Look!" said the child. "First I showed her all my dolls, and then all +my new dresses; and now I have given her my new stone blocks to play +with, but she will not play, only puts them in her mouth and cries." + +"Perhaps she is hungry!" said the Play Angel. She took a piece of bread +from the folds of her robe and gave it to the baby; and the baby +stopped crying, and ate the bread, and laughed and crowed. + +"See!" said the Angel. "Now she is happy. Remember, dear, that when +babies are hungry, stone blocks do them no good." + +"You are a very clever angel to know that!" said the child. + +"You are a rather foolish child," said the Angel, "or you would have +found it out for yourself." + + + + +THE POTTER + + +A potter wrought at his wheel, singing as he wrought, turning out crocks +and pipkins of red clay. They were clumsy of shape and rude in the +making, yet they served to hold meal and milk, and the poor folk bought +of him. But ever, as he shaped the clay, the potter said to himself: +"Some day, some day, I will make a cup of gold for the Prince's +drinking!" + +Now and again, when he was well paid for his pots, he would get a bit of +gold and put it by. This small hoard was precious to him as sunlight, +and bit by bit, little coin by little coin, it grew, till one day he had +enough. Then he left his clay, and with care and loving pains, his lathe +turning to the beat of his heart, he fashioned a little cup of gold. + +"It is small," he said, "but it will hold wine for a single draught." +And he set it in the sun among his pots, where it could be seen of the +passers-by. + +Presently rode by the Prince and his court, and saw the pots, and on one +the sun shining. + +"Look!" said one of the courtiers, "if the potter have not gilded one of +his clay pipkins!" + + + + +THE NEIGHBOUR + + +"What can you tell me of your neighbour?" asked the +Angel-who-looks-into-things. + +"Oh, an excellent person!" said the Busy Man. "Full of wisdom and +virtue; merry, too, withal; in short, a delightful companion." + +"You have been much together, then?" said the +Angel-who-looks-into-things. + +"Well, scarcely that," replied the Busy Man; "in fact, I have been so +excessively busy that I have seen nothing of him for a long time. But +now I have every intention of doing so; indeed, I think I will ask him +to dine with me to-night." + +"You can hardly do that!" said the Angel. + +"Why not?" + +"Because he died this morning." + + + + +THE WOUND + + +Once an Angel found a child crying bitterly, and stopped to comfort him. + +"What is the matter, dear?" asked the Angel. + +"Oh, I have hurt myself dreadfully!" said the child. "Dreadfully! see!" +and he showed his wound. + +"Yes, that must have hurt very much, I know," said the Angel; "but cheer +up! I knew another child who was wounded in the same place, and he got +over it in good time." + +"Ah! but it was not so bad a wound as mine!" said the child. + +"Yes, it was," said the Angel; "every bit as bad." + +"But it did not hurt him so much!" said the child. + +"How do you know that?" asked the Angel. + +"Because he wasn't me!" said the child. + + + + +THE WHITE FIRE + + +I + +Three men came to Love the Lord, asking a gift of his white fire, and +the gift was not denied. "Take it, keep it, use it!" said Love the Lord; +and they answered joyfully, "Yea, Lord, this will we do!" + +Then the three fared forth on their way, the old way, and the new way, +and the only way; yet they went not together, but each by himself alone. + +Presently one came to a dark valley, full of men who groped with their +hands, seeking the way, and finding it not, for they had no light; and +they moaned, and cried, "Oh! that we had light, to show us the way!" + +Then that man answered aloud, "Yea, and there shall be light!" + +And he took the fire that was given him of Love the Lord, and made of it +a torch, and held it aloft, and it flashed through the darkness like a +sword, and showed the way; and he leading, they following, they came +safe through that place into the light of day. + +The second man went by another path of the way, and it led him over a +bleak moor, where the wind blew bitter keen, and the rocks stood like +frozen iron; and here were men shivering with cold, huddling together +for warmth, yet finding none, for they had no fire. And they moaned, and +cried, "Ah! if we had but fire to keep the life in us, for we perish!" + +And the man said, "Yea, there shall be fire!" + +And he took the fire that he had of Love the Lord, and spread it out, +and set faggots to it, and it blazed up broad and bright; and the folk +gathered round it, and held out their hands and warmed themselves at it, +and forgot the bitter wind. + +Now the third man went his way also; and as he went he said to himself, +"How shall I keep my fire safe, that no fierce wind blow it out, and no +foul vapor stifle it? I know what I will do; I will hide it in my heart, +and so no harm can come to it." And he hid the fire in his heart, and +carried it so, and went on. + +Now by and by those three came to the end of the way, and there waited +for them one in white, and his face veiled. He said to the first man, +"What of your fire?" + +And the man said, "I found folk struggling in darkness, and I made a +torch of my fire, and showed them the way; now is it well-nigh wasted, +yet still it burns." + +And he in white said, "It is well; this fire shall never die." + +Then came the second, and of him, too, that one asked, "What of your +fire?" + +And he said, "I found men shivering, with nought to warm them, and I +gave my fire, that they might live, and not die." + +And he in white answered again, "It is well; this fire too shall never +die." + +Then came the third, and answered boldly, and said, "I have brought my +fire safe, through peril and through strife; lo, see it here in my +heart!" + +Then that one in white put aside his veil; and it was Love the Lord +himself. "Alas!" he said; "what is this you have done?" + +And he opened the man's heart; and inside it was a black char, and white +ashes lying in it. + + + + +THE WHITE FIRE + + +II + +This one Love the Lord called to him, and waited no asking, but put the +gift in her hands, the white gift of fire. + +"What shall I do with it, Lord?" she asked: and he said, "Lighten the +darkness!" + +"Yea, Lord," she answered, "as I may!" and took the gift meekly and +went. But as she went, she met one strong and silent, who took her in +his arms, and bore her to a high tower, and kept her there in ward. The +name of that strong one was Pain, and he was faithful as Night and +Death, and they two dwelt together. + +But she in the tower tended ever the white fire, and wept over it, +saying, "How, in this tower, shall I do the will of Love the Lord, +seeing here are only my fellow Pain and I? and the tower is full of +seams and cracks, so that the wind blows cold upon my fire, and would +fain quench it; and in no case can I lighten any darkness save my own." + +But still she tended the fire and kept it alive; pure and white was the +flame of it, and she and her fellow Pain sat beside it and kept them +warm. + +But Love the Lord looked from the clearness where he dwelt, and smiled; +well pleased was he. For he saw through the seams and rents in that +doleful tower the light stream clear and radiant: and in the darkness +toward which his high heart yearned he saw men struggling forward, and +heard them cry to one another joyfully, "Look up! take heart! yonder +shines a light to guide us on the way." + + + + +FOR YOU AND ME + + +"I have come to speak to you about your work," said the +Angel-who-attends-to-things. "It appears to be unsatisfactory." + +"Indeed!" said the man. "I hardly see how that can be. Perhaps you will +explain." + +"I will!" said the Angel. "To begin with, the work is slovenly." + +"I was born heedless," said the man. "It is a family failing which I +have always regretted." + +"It is ill put together, too;" said the Angel. "The parts do not fit." + +"I never had any eye for proportion," said the man; "I admit it is +unfortunate." + +"The whole thing is a botch," said the Angel. "You have put neither +brains nor heart into it, and the result is ridiculous failure. What do +you propose to do about it?" + +"I credited you with more comprehension," said the man. "My faults, such +as they are, were born with me. I am sorry that you do not approve of +me, but this is the way I was made; do you see?" + +"I see!" said the Angel. He put out a strong white hand, and taking the +man by the collar, tumbled him neck and crop into the ditch. + +"What is the meaning of this?" cried the man, as he scrambled out +breathless and dripping. "I never saw such behavior. Do you see what you +have done? you have ruined my clothes, and nearly drowned me beside." + +"Oh yes!" said the Angel: "this is the way _I_ was made." + + + + +THE PICTURE BOOK + + +"Brother," said the little boy, "show me a pretty picture book!" + +"Nay!" said the brother. "I would rather show you this book with the +ugly pictures, so that when you come to see ugly things you may know +what they are. Look! see this, how hateful it is; and this, how hideous; +and here again, this, enough to turn one cold with horror." + +"Oh!" said the child; and he shuddered. "They are horrible indeed; show +me more!" + +Next day the brother found the child before a mirror, twisting his face +this way and that, squinting, and making a thousand horrible grimaces. + +"My dear little boy," cried the brother, "why are you making yourself so +hideous?" + +"I want to see if I can look like the pictures in the book!" said the +child. + + + + +THE FLOWER OF JOY + + +The white frost struck my garden, and blighted my flower of joy. Oh! it +was fair, and all the sweetness of the spring breathed from its cup; but +now it lay blackened and withered, and my heart with it. + +Then, as I stood mourning, I heard another crying voice; and looking up +I saw my neighbour in her garden, bending over her stricken plants and +weeping sore. I hastened to her. "Take courage!" I said. "It may be they +are not quite dead: for, look! here lingers a little green along the +leaves. Look here again, the sap flows. Take heart, and we will work +together, you and I." + +So I labored, and she with me, binding up, tending and watering, night +and day; till at last life came back to her plants, first faltering, +then flowing free, and they held up their heads and drank the sunshine, +and opened fair and sweet to the day. + +Then, with her blessing warm at my heart, I turned me homeward: and oh! +and oh! in the ruined garden where all lay black and prone, a thread of +green creeping, a tiny bud peeping, a breath of spring upon the air. +Glad woman, I fell upon my knees, and stretched out trembling hands to +where, faint and feeble, yet alive, bloomed once more my flower of joy. + + + + +THE BURNING HOUSE + + +Some neighbours were walking together in the cool of the day, watching +the fall of the twilight, and talking of this and that; and as they +walked, they saw at a little distance a light, as it were a house on +fire. + +"From the direction, that must be our neighbour William's house," said +one. "Ought we not to warn him of the danger?" + +"I see only a little flame," said another; "perchance it may go out of +itself, and no harm done." + +"I should be loth to carry ill news," said a third; "it is always a +painful thing to do." + +"William is not a man who welcomes interference," said a fourth. "I +should not like to be the one to intrude upon his privacy; probably he +knows about the fire, and is managing it in his own way." + +While they were talking, the house burned up. + + + + +THE PLANT + + +A plant grew up in the spring, and spread its leaves and looked abroad, +rejoicing in its life. + +"To grow!" said the plant. "To be beautiful, and gladden the eyes of +those who look on me: this is life. The Giver of it be praised!" + +Now the plant budded and blossomed: lovely the blossoms were, and sweet, +and men plucked them joyfully. + +"This is well!" said the plant. "To send beauty and fragrance hither and +thither, to sweeten the world even a little, this is life: the Giver of +it be praised!" + +Autumn came, and the plant stood lonely, yet at peace. "One cannot +always be in blossom!" it said. "One has done what one could, and a +little is part of the whole." + +By and by came a gatherer of herbs, and cut the green leaves from the +plant. "They are good for bruises," he said; "or distilled, their juice +may heal an inward wound." + +The plant heard and rejoiced. "To heal!" it said. "That is even better +than to gladden the eyes. The Giver of this too be praised!" + +Now it was winter. The dry stalk stood in the field, and crackled with +the frost, its few remaining leaves clinging black and shrivelled about +it. + +"All is over now," said the plant. "There must be an end to everything." + +But now came a poor soul shivering with the cold, and took the dry plant +and carried it to his home; and breaking it in pieces, laid the +fragments on his naked hearth and set fire to them. Puff! the dry stalks +crackled into flame and blazed up merrily, filling the room with light +and warmth. + +"And is this death?" said the plant. "The Giver of all be praised!" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Silver Crown, by Laura E. 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