O happy swallows! circling skim And twitter o’er the gray church-towers. He called you sisters; ye with him Chirped sweetly when he sang the Hours. And ye, his brothers innocent, With whom he talked where’er he went, Play, lamb and leveret, in the flowers! Wise foolishness and melting ruth— That move deep chords, O love! in you— Born of child-instincts, or a truth He and the angels knew! “O Sun, my brother above all! Stars, Sister Moon, in praise accord. Chaste, humble, useful, precious, full, O Sister Water, freely poured! Robust and jocund, strong and bright, O Brother Fire! illume the night. Live tongues of beauty, praise the Lord! O Brother Wind! thy wonders weave In clouds and the blue sky above, Wherefrom all creatures life receive, And weave them all of love. “Confess the Lord, O Mother Earth! Through whom so beautiful thou art. To herb, fruit, flower, he giveth birth And color from Love’s eyes and heart. Serve God!” he sang. His sermons good, Dear to shy creatures of the wood, Could even to bole and branch impart Their glowing sense: a conscious soul Kin to his own in all things moved. His monument is grand—the whole Creation that he loved. O Life, that sought to imitate The one pure type, its perfect Chief, By its own purity separate As is the dew-drop on a leaf, Which yet doth from its luminous veil A glory to the flower exhale! Close sympathy with no touch of grief! Let fair Assisi on its slope, An unremote yet reachless star, Lend to our hearts another trope, So near and yet so far. O Poet, who in faltering rhyme First wove the Tuscan into song! O poem and miracle sublime, Thyself, in Dante sweet and strong! To his fourth circle of Paradise, To the King-splendor of the skies, Dost thou, the elder seer, belong. Thee “Sister Death” hath glorified; And what an image we have won: Through kindled mists of mountain-side, Assisi in the sun! SIX SUNNY MONTHS. BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE HOUSE OF YORKE,” “GRAPES AND THORNS,” ETC. CHAPTER XI. A MORNING WITH ST. PETER. As the day approached for their visit to the crypt of St. Peter, Mr. Vane absented himself very much from the house, and the last day was spent entirely away, from early in the morning till late in the evening. They understood that he was to make his First Communion with them, but asked no questions, leaving him entirely free, and he gave no explanation. The Signora and the two daughters made a Triduum for him in the mornings; and so deeply did they feel the event for him that they looked forward to their own Communion almost as if it were to be their first, and lived as though in retreat for two or three days.