struggling in darkness, and I made a torch of my fire, and showed them the way; now is it well-nigh wasted, yet still it burns."

   And he in white said, "It is well; this fire shall never die."

   Then came the second, and of him, too, that one asked, "What of your fire?"

   And he said, "I found men shivering, with nought to warm them, and I gave my fire, that they might live, and not die."

   And he in white answered again, "It is well; this fire too shall never die."

   Then came the third, and answered

   boldly, and said, "I have brought my fire safe, through peril and through strife; lo, see it here in my heart!"

   Then that one in white put aside his veil; and it was Love the Lord himself. "Alas!" he said; "what is this you have done?"

   And he opened the man's heart; and inside it was a black char, and white ashes lying in it.

   This one Love the Lord called to him, and waited no asking, but put the gift in her hands, the white gift of fire.

   "What shall I do with it, Lord?" she asked: and he said, "Lighten the darkness!"

   "Yea, Lord," she answered, "as I may!" and took the gift meekly and went. But as she went, she met one strong and silent, who took her in his arms, and bore her to a high tower, and kept her there in ward. The name of that strong one was Pain, and he was faithful as Night and Death, and they two dwelt together.

   But she in the tower tended ever the white fire, and wept over it, saying, "How,

   in this tower, shall I do the will of Love the Lord, seeing here are only my fellow Pain and I? and the tower is full of seams and cracks, so that the wind blows cold upon my fire, and would fain quench it; and in no case can I lighten any darkness save my own."

   But still she tended the fire and kept it alive; pure and white was the flame of it, and she and her fellow Pain sat beside it and kept them warm.

   But Love the Lord looked from the clearness where he dwelt, and smiled; well pleased was he. For he saw through the seams and rents in that doleful tower the light stream clear and radiant: and in the darkness toward which his high heart yearned he saw men 

 Prev. P 34/37 next