* * * * *
I waked brushing a fly from my nose, and saw the Club waiter set out the
evening papers on the table.
"THEY"
THE RETURN OF THE CHILDREN
Neither the harps nor the crowns amused, nor the cherubs' dove-winged
races--
Holding hands forlornly the Children wandered beneath the Dome;
Plucking the radiant robes of the passers by, and with pitiful faces
Begging what Princes and Powers refused:--"Ah, please will you let us
go home?"
Over the jewelled floor, nigh weeping, ran to them Mary the Mother,
Kneeled and caressed and made promise with kisses, and drew them along
to the gateway--
Yea, the all-iron unbribable Door which Peter must guard and none other.
Straightway She took the Keys from his keeping, and opened and freed
them straightway.
Then to Her Son, Who had seen and smiled, She said: "On the night that
I bore Thee
What didst Thou care for a love beyond mine or a heaven that was not my
arm?
Didst Thou push from the nipple O Child, to hear the angels adore Thee?
When we two lay in the breath of the kine?" And He said:--"Thou hast
done no harm."
So through the Void the Children ran homeward merrily hand in hand,
Looking neither to left nor right where the breathless Heavens stood
still;
And the Guards of the Void resheathed their swords, for they heard the
Command.
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