It was all mine to have and to hold without severing a single
slender stem or harbouring a thought of covetousness; mine, as the
whole earth was mine, to appropriate to myself without the burden
and bane of worldly possession. "Thou sayest that I am--a King,"
said the Lord before Pilate, and "My kingdom is not of this world."
We who are made kings after His likeness possess all things, not
after this world's fashion but in proportion to our poverty; and
when we cease to toil and spin, are arrayed as the lilies, in a
glory transcending Solomon's. Bride Poverty--she who climbed the
Cross with Christ--stretched out eager hands to free us from our
chains, but we flee from her, and lay up treasure against her
importunity, while Amytas on his seaweed bed weeps tears of pure
pity for crave-mouth Caesar of great possessions.
Presently another of spring's lovers cried across the water
"Cuckoo, cuckoo," and the voice of the stream sang joyously in
unison. It is free from burden, this merry little river, and
neither weir nor mill bars its quick way to the sea as it completes
the eternal circle, lavishing gifts of coolness and refreshment on
the children of the meadows.
It has its birth on the great lone moor, cradled in a wonderful
peat-smelling bog, with a many-hued coverlet of soft mosses--pale
gold, orange, emerald, tawny, olive and white, with the red stain
of sun-dew and tufted cotton-grass. Under the old grey rocks which
watch it rise, yellow-eyed tormantil stars the turf, and bids
"Godspeed" to the little child of earth and sky.
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