Part 10 (1/2)

”Ah, see!” said Aileen sighing, With a bend of her saddened head Where a mighty hero was lying, He looked like one who was dead.

”He will wake,” said their guide, ”'tis but seeming, And, oh, what his eyes shall see I will know of only in dreaming Till I lie there still as he.”

They chanted the song of waking, They breathed on him with fire, Till the hero-spirit outbreaking, Shot radiant above the choir.

Like a pillar of opal glory Lit through with many a gem-- ”Why, look at him now,” said Rory, ”He has turned to a faery like them!”

The elfin kings ascending Leaped up from the thrones of might, And one with another blending They vanished in air and light.

The rill to its bed came splas.h.i.+ng With rocks on the top of that: The children awoke with a flas.h.i.+ng Of wonder, ”What were we at?”

They groped through the reeds and clover-- ”What funny old markings: look here, They have scrawled the rocks all over: It's just where the door was: how queer!”

--September 15, 1896

The Voice of the Wise

They sat with hearts untroubled, The clear sky sparkled above, And an ancient wisdom bubbled From the lips of a youthful love.

They read in a coloured history Of Egypt and of the Nile, And half it seemed a mystery, Familiar, half, the while.

Till living out of the story Grew old Egyptian men, And a shadow looked forth Rory And said, ”We meet again!”

And over Aileen a maiden Looked back through the ages dim: She laughed, and her eyes were laden With an old-time love for him.

In a mist came temples thronging With sphinxes seen in a row, And the rest of the day was a longing For their homes of long ago.

”We'd go there if they'd let us,”

They said with wounded pride: ”They never think when they pet us We are old like that inside.”

There was some one round them straying The whole of the long day through, Who seemed to say, ”I am playing At hide-and-seek with you.”

And one thing after another Was whispered out of the air, How G.o.d was a big kind brother Whose home was in everywhere.

His light like a smile come glancing From the cool, cool winds as they pa.s.s; From the flowers in heaven dancing And the stars that s.h.i.+ne in the gra.s.s,

And the clouds in deep blue wreathing, And most from the mountains tall, But G.o.d like a wind goes breathing A heart-light of gold in all.

It grows like a tree and pushes Its way through the inner gloom, And flowers in quick little rushes Of love to a magic bloom.

And no one need sigh now or sorrow Whenever the heart-light flies, For it comes again on some morrow And n.o.body ever dies.

The heart of the Wise was beating In the children's heart that day, And many a thought came fleeting, And fancies solemn and gay.