Chapter XI: Part V: The Happy Ending

We told dear father all our tale
That night before we went to bed,
And at the end his face grew pale,
And he bent over us and said
(Was it not strange?) he, too, was there,
A weary, weary watch to keep
Before the gates of the City of Sleep;
But, ere we came, he did not dare
Even to dream of entering in,
Or even to hope for Peterkin.
He was the poor blind man, he said,
And we--how low he bent his head!
Then he called mother near; and low
He whispered to us--“Prompt me now;
For I forget that song we heard,
But you remember every word.”
Then memory came like a breaking morn,
And we breathed it to him--_A child was born!_
And there he drew us to his breast
And softly murmured all the rest.--

_The wise men came to greet him with their gifts
of myrrh and frankincense,--_
_Gold and myrrh and frankincense they brought to make him mirth;_
_And would you know the way to win to little brother Peterkin,_
_My childhood’s heart shall guide you through the glories of the earth._

Then he looked up and mother knelt
Beside us, oh, her eyes were bright;
Her arms were like a lovely belt
All round us as we said Good-night
To father: _he_ was crying now,
But they were happy tears, somehow;
For there we saw dear mother lay
Her cheek against his cheek and say--
Hush, let me kiss those tears away.

_DEDICATION_

_What can a wanderer bring_
_To little ones loved like you?_
_You have songs of your own to sing_
_That are far more steadfast and true,_
_Crumbs of pity for birds_
_That flit o’er your sun-swept lawn,_
_Songs that are dearer than all our words_
_With a love that is clear as the dawn._

_What should a dreamer devise,_
_In the depths of his wayward will,_
_To deepen the gleam of your eyes_
_Who can dance with the Sun-child still?_
_Yet you glanced on his lonely way,_
_You cheered him in dream and deed,_
_And his heart is o’erflowing, o’erflowing to-day_
_With a love that--you never will need._

_What can a pilgrim teach_
_To dwellers in fairy-land?_
_Truth that excels all speech_
_You murmur and understand!_
_All he can sing you he brings;_
_But--one thing more if he may_,
_One thing more that the King of Kings_
_Will take from the child on the way._

_Yet how can a child of the night_
_Brighten the light of the sun?_
_How can he add a delight_
_To the dances that never are done?_
_Ah, what if he struggles to turn_
_Once more to the sweet old skies_
_With praise and praise, from the fetters that burn,_
_To the God that brightened your eyes?_

_Yes; he is weak, he will fail,_
_Yet, what if, in sorrows apart,_
_One thing, one should avail,_
_The cry of a grateful heart;_
_It has wings: they return through the night_
_To a sky where the light lives yet,_
_To the clouds that kneel on his mountain-height_
_And the path that his feet forget._

_What if he struggles and still_
_Fails and struggles again?_
_What if his broken will_
_Whispers the struggle is vain?_
_Once at least he has risen_
_Because he remembered your eyes;_
_Once they have brought to his earthly prison_
_The passion of Paradise._

_Kind little eyes that I love,_
_Eyes forgetful of mine,_
_In a dream I am bending above_
_Your sleep, and you open and shine;_
_And I know as my own grow blind_
_With a lonely prayer for your sake,_
_He will hear--even me--little eyes that were kind,_
_God bless you, asleep or awake._

* * * * *

BY ALFRED NOYES

Poems

With an Introduction by HAMILTON MABIE

_Cloth, 12mo, $1.25 net_

“Imagination, the capacity to perceive vividly and feel sincerely, and the gift of fit and beautiful expression in verse-form--if these may be taken as the equipment of a poet, nearly all of this volume is poetry. And if to the sum of these be added the indescribable increment of charm which comes occasionally to the work of some poet, quite unearned by any of these catalogued qualities of his, you have a fair measure of Mr. Noyes at his best.... Two considerations render Mr. Noyes interesting above most poets: the wonderful degree in which the personal charm illumines what he has already written, and the surprises which one feels may be in store in his future work. His feelings have already so much variety and so much apparent sincerity that it is impossible to tell in what direction his genius will develop. In whatever style he writes,--the mystical, the historical-dramatic, the impassioned description of natural beauty, the ballad, the love lyric,--he has the peculiarity of seeming in each style to have found the truest expression of himself.”--_Louisville Courier-Journal._

_PUBLISHED BY_ THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Sixty-four and Sixty-six Fifth Avenue, New York

A History of English Poetry

BY W. J. COURTHOPE, C.B., D.Litt., LL.D.

Late Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford

_Cloth, 8vo, $3.25 net per volume_

VOLUME I. The Middle Ages--Influence of the Roman Empire--The
Encyclopædic Education of the Church--The Feudal System.

VOLUME II. The Renaissance and the Reformation--Influence of the
Court and the Universities.

VOLUME III. English Poetry in the Seventeenth Century--Decadent
Influence of the Feudal Monarchy--Growth of the National Genius.

VOLUME IV. Development and Decline of the Poetic Drama--Influence
of the Court and the People.

VOLUME V. The Constitutional Compromise of the Eighteenth
Century--Effects of the Classical Renaissance--Its Zenith and
Decline--The Early Romantic Renaissance.

“It is his privilege to have made a contribution of great value and signal importance to the history of English Literature.”--_Pall Mall Gazette._

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RECENT POETRY

DAWSON--The Worker and Other Poems

BY CONINGSBY WILLIAM DAWSON

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“The volume cannot be opened anywhere without yielding verse that will repay the reading.”--_Courier-Journal._

FALLAW--Silverleaf and Oak

BY LANCE FALLAW

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In the title of this book “Silverleaf” stands for South Africa, and “Oak” for England.

NEIDIG--The First Wardens

POEMS BY WILLIAM J. NEIDIG

A volume of unusual quality of imagination and style, strongly marked with the author’s individuality.--_Inter-Ocean._

IRWIN--Random Rhymes and Odd Numbers

BY WALLACE IRWIN

“Inimitable jingles, deftly apropos, droll and satiric, striking a humorous note that sounds of genius.”--_Philadelphia Press._

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RECENT POETIC DRAMAS

By Mr. PERCY MACKAYE

=The Canterbury Pilgrims=: A Comedy

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=Fenris, the Wolf=: A Tragedy

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Jeanne d’Arc

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Sappho and Phaon

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The play was accepted before publication for presentation by E. H.
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=Mr. STEPHEN PHILLIPS’S= _POETIC PLAYS_

=Ulysses=: A Drama

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The Sin of David

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Nero

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=Mr. WILLIAM B. YEATS’S= _COLLECTED POEMS_

Volume I: =Lyrical Poems= Volume II: =Dramas in Verse=:--

“The Countess Cathleen”--“The Land of Heart’s Desire”--“The King’s
Threshold”--“On Baile’s Strand” and “The Shadowy Waters.”

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