A mighty cry of joy went forth through all the star, because the mother
was re-united to her two children. And he stretched out his arms and
cried, ‘O, mother, sister, and brother, I am here! Take me!’ And they
answered him, ‘Not yet,’ and the star was shining.
He grew to be a man, whose hair was turning grey, and he was sitting in
his chair by the fireside, heavy with grief, and with his face bedewed
with tears, when the star opened once again.
Said his sister’s angel to the leader: ‘Is my brother come?’
And he said, ‘Nay, but his maiden daughter.’
And the man who had been the child saw his daughter, newly lost to him, a
celestial creature among those three, and he said, ‘My daughter’s head is
on my sister’s bosom, and her arm is around my mother’s neck, and at her
feet there is the baby of old time, and I can bear the parting from her,
GOD be praised!’
And the star was shining.
Thus the child came to be an old man, and his once smooth face was
wrinkled, and his steps were slow and feeble, and his back was bent. And
one night as he lay upon his bed, his children standing round, he cried,
as he had cried so long ago:
‘I see the star!’
They whispered one another, ‘He is dying.’
And he said, ‘I am. My age is falling from me like a garment, and I move
towards the star as a child. And O, my Father, now I thank thee that it
has so often opened, to receive those dear ones who await me!’
And the star was shining; and it shines upon his grave.
OUR ENGLISH WATERING-PLACE
IN the Autumn-time of the year, when the great metropolis is so much
hotter, so much noisier, so much more dusty or so much more water-carted,
so much more crowded, so much more disturbing and distracting in all
respects, than it usually is, a quiet sea-beach becomes indeed a blessed
spot. Half awake and half asleep, this idle morning in our sunny window
on the edge of a chalk-cliff in the old-fashioned watering-place to which
we are a faithful resorter, we feel a lazy inclination to sketch its
picture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account