Part 11 (1/2)

Not you . . . Not you . . . Why should you be afraid?

Give all your little fears, and Martha's with them, To me; and I will add them unto mine, Like a few rain-drops to Gennesaret.”

”If you had frightened me in other ways, Not willing it,” Mary said, ”I should have known You still for Lazarus. But who is this?

Tell me again that you are Lazarus; And tell me if the Master gave to you No sign of a new joy that shall be coming To this house that He loved. Are you afraid?

Are you afraid, who have felt everything -- And seen . . . ?”

But Lazarus only shook his head, Staring with his bewildered s.h.i.+ning eyes Hard into Mary's face. ”I do not know, Mary,” he said, after a long time.

”When I came back, I knew the Master's eyes Were looking into mine. I looked at His, And there was more in them than I could see.

At first I could see nothing but His eyes; Nothing else anywhere was to be seen -- Only His eyes. And they looked into mine -- Long into mine, Mary, as if He knew.”

Mary began to be afraid of words As she had never been afraid before Of loneliness or darkness, or of death, But now she must have more of them or die: ”He cannot know that there is worse than death,”

She said. ”And you . . .”

”Yes, there is worse than death.”

Said Lazarus; ”and that was what He knew; And that is what it was that I could see This morning in his eyes. I was afraid, But not as you are. There is worse than death, Mary; and there is nothing that is good For you in dying while you are still here.

Mary, never go back to that again.

You would not hear me if I told you more, For I should say it only in a language That you are not to learn by going back.

To be a child again is to go forward -- And that is much to know. Many grow old, And fade, and go away, not knowing how much That is to know. Mary, the night is coming, And there will soon be darkness all around you.

Let us go down where Martha waits for us, And let there be light s.h.i.+ning in this house.”

He rose, but Mary would not let him go: ”Martha, when she came back from here, said only That she heard nothing. And have you no more For Mary now than you had then for Martha?