them against his beating little heart, and warmed them--and softly he drew
them on and on.
And when they came beyond, into the land of sunshine and flowers, strangely
the great eyes lit up, and dimples broke out upon the face. Brightly
laughing, it ran over the soft grass; gathered honey from the hollow tree;
and brought it them on the palm of its hand; carried them water in the
leaves of the lily, and gathered flowers and wreathed them round their
heads, softly laughing all the while. He touched them as their Joy had
touched them, but his fingers clung more tenderly.
So they wandered on, through the dark lands and the light, always with that
little brave smiling one between them. Sometimes they remembered that
first radiant Joy, and whispered to themselves, "Oh! could we but find him
also!"
At last they came to where Reflection sits; that strange old
woman who has
always one elbow on her knee, and her chin in her hand, and who steals
light out of the past to shed it on the future.
And Life and Love cried out, "O wise one! tell us: when first we met, a
lovely radiant thing belonged to us--gladness without a tear, sunshine
without a shade. Oh! how did we sin that we lost it? Where shall we go
that we may find it?"
And she, the wise old
woman, answered, "To have it back, will you give up
that which walks beside you now?"
And in agony Love and Life cried, "No!"
"Give up this!" said Life. "When the thorns have pierced me, who will suck
the poison out? When my head throbs, who will lay his tiny hands upon it
and still the beating? In the cold and the dark, who will warm my freezing
heart?"
And Love cried out, "Better let me die! Without Joy I can live; without
this I cannot. Let me rather die, not lose it!"
And the wise old
woman answered, "O fools and blind! What you once had is
that which you have now! When Love and Life first meet, a radiant thing is
born, without a shade. When the roads begin to roughen, when the shades
begin to darken, when the days are hard, and the nights cold and long--then
it begins to change. Love and Life WILL not see it, WILL not know it--till
