Part 36 (2/2)

If ever I become a rich man, Or if ever I grow to be old, I will build a house with deep thatch To shelter me from the cold, And there shall the Suss.e.x songs be sung And the story of Suss.e.x told.

I will hold my house in the high wood Within a walk of the sea, And the men that were boys when I was a boy Shall sit and drink with me.

ARAB LOVE-SONG [Sidenote: _Francis Thompson_]

The hunched camels of the night[11]

Trouble the bright And silver waters of the moon.

The Maiden of the Morn will soon Through Heaven stray and sing, Star gathering.

Now while the dark about our loves is strewn, Light of my dark, blood of my heart, O come!

And night will catch her breath up, and be dumb.

Leave thy father, leave thy mother And thy brother; Leave the black tents of thy tribe apart!

Am I not thy father and thy brother, And thy mother?

And thou--what needest with thy tribe's black tents Who hast the red pavilion of my heart?

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES [Sidenote: _Wilfrid Maynell_]

As high up in a house as a nest In a tree, They have gone for the night to their rest, The Babes three.

One will say, when they wake, with arms crossed, ”Jesus blest!”

One will cry ”Mother mine”--and be lost In that breast.

”Ta-ra-ra,” then the littlest maid saith, Two and gay; And loud laughs with the last of her breath, ”Boom-de-ay!”

What they say, in their nests, these dear birds, Is all even: For their speech, be whatever their words, Is of Heaven.

THEIR BEST [Sidenote: _Wilfrid Maynell_]

She is a very simple maid-- Nicknamed a ”tweeny”; The cook's and housemaid's riven aid, Christ-named Irene.

And when, in lower regions, she Hears hurled request, She laughs or cries: ”Oh, right you be, I'll do my best.”

Her very best, be very sure!

She holds it fast-- Religion undefiled and pure.

And, at the last, When Life, from this sad house of her, Flits like a guest, She'll curtsy to the Judge: ”O Sir, I did my best.”

The Judge, for sure, will bow His head; And, round the throne, Angels will know to G.o.d they've led His very own.

This sentence then shall gently fall: ”Irene, you Have done your best: and that is all Even G.o.d can do.”

MAGNIFICENT ENDS [Sidenote: _Disraeli in ”Vivian Grey”_]

In the plenitude of his ambition he stopped one day to enquire in what manner he could obtain his magnificent ends: ”The Bar--pooh! law and bad jokes till we are forty; and then with the most brilliant success, the prospect of gout and a coronet. Besides, to succeed as an advocate, I must be a great lawyer, and to be a great lawyer, I must give up my chance of being a great man. The Services in war time are only fit for desperadoes (and that truly am I); but, in peace, are fit only for fools. The Church is more rational. Let me see: I should certainly like to act Wolsey, but the thousand and one chances against me! and truly I feel _my_ destiny should not be on a chance. Were I the son of a millionaire, or a n.o.ble, I might have _all_. Curse on my lot! that the want of a few rascal counters, and the possession of a little rascal blood should mar my fortunes!”

GENIUS, WHEN YOUNG [Sidenote: _Disraeli in ”Coningsby”_]

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