"'Put off, put off your mail, ye kings, and beat your brands to dust; A surer grasp your hands must know, your hearts a better trust. Nay, bend aback the lance's point, and break the helmet bar, A noise is in the morning winds, but not the note of war! "'Among the grassy mountain paths the glittering troops increase; They come! they come! how fair their feet--they come that publish peace. Yea, Victory, fair Victory, our enemies are ours, And all the clouds are clasped in light, and all the earth with flowers. "'Ah! still depressed and dim with dew, but wait a little while, And radiant with the deathless rose the wilderness shall smile, And every tender, living thing shall feed by streams of rest, Nor lamb shall from the fold be lost, nor nursling from the nest.'" "That reminds us of what the prophet said about the time when all the beasts even shall lose their cruel traits and live at peace with each other, and even play with little children." "Could that ever be true, mamma?" interrupted Harold. {301}{302} [Illustration] ON GUARD [End illustration] {303} "Well, even now, my dear," replied mamma, "wild and fierce animals have been wholly tamed by kindness. We cannot tell what beautiful things might happen if all evil and unkindness should be driven from the world and men should live as Christ taught us to live. "Here are the prophet's words: 'And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' "These verses are from the Psalms and the Proverbs:-- "'For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. "'I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.' "'The merciful man doeth good to his own soul; but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.' "'A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.' "And here are some of the words of Jesus about animals and birds and about kindness:-- {304} "'Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.' "'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' "'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.'