"Heart-of-mine, are you come at last?"

   "At long, long last, Beloved!"

   "Was it so long?"

   "Long as grief, cold as the stone above your grave, empty as the noonday sky!"

   "Oh! how was it empty, when I left the cup brimming over for you? Heart-of-mine, whom met you by the way?"

   "Only a man, crippled in the mire, cursing as he struggled. I shut my ears against his foul speech and passed on."

   "Oh! if it were my brother, whom you should have helped! whom else?"

   "Only a woman, bowed under a burden; my own was more than I could bear, and I let her be."

   "Alas! if it were my sister, and in her pack the balm that should have healed you! Whom else again?"

   "None else, save children: they cried about my path, but how could I stay for them while you waited?"

   "Alas! if among the children were those I might not bear to you! And fare you well, Heart-of-mine, for I must be gone, and now the time is long indeed."

   "Oh! whither, Beloved of my soul, from my arms that clasp yet cannot hold you?"

   "Heart-of-mine, where but back to earth, to do the work you left undone, to gather up, with patience and with toil, the sheaves you left behind!"

   "Why do you play alone, dear," asked the Play Angel, "and look so sadly over your shoulder at the other children?"

   "Because they are so selfish!" said the child. "They will not play with me."

   "Oh, the pity!" said the Angel. "Tell me all about it."

   "I want to play one game, and they all want to play another!" said the child. "It is very unkind of them."

   "Did you ever play Gillyflower Gentleman?" asked the Angel.

   "No!" said the child. "What is it?"

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