. If I were dead, I
should not feel the blows; why should I struggle further with this
burden?"

Just then he happened to lift his eyes, and saw the child smiling at the
window.

"Ah!" he said, "that child is smiling at me. He sees that I was once a
fine animal; he knows good blood when he sees it. Ah! if he had seen me
in my youth! But I can still show him something." And he arched his neck
proudly, and stepped out bravely, tossing his head, and the load came
more easily after him.

By and by a man passed by, walking slowly, with bent head and sorrowful
look. He had lost the treasure of his heart, and the whole world was
black about him. "Why should I live longer?" he said to himself. "I have
nothing to live for in this world of misery. Let me lie down and die; in
death I can at least forget my pain and the pain of others."

As he spoke, he lifted his eyes by chance, and saw the child smiling at
the window.

"Come!" said the man. "There at least is one happy heart; and he
smiles, as if he were glad to see me pass. He is a sick child, too,
pale and thin; I must not cast a shadow on his cheerful day. And indeed,
the sun is bright and warm, even if my joy be cold."

He smiled and nodded to the child, and the child nodded to him, and
waved his hand, and the man went on, carrying the smile warm at his
heart, and took up the burden of life again.

Now it was evening. The child was weary. His head drooped on his bosom,
and his eyes closed. Then his mother came, and lifted him from his
chair, and laid him in his little bed.

"God bless him!" she said softly. "He has had a happy day, for he is
smiling even in his sleep."

AT LONG LAST

"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! i