cullis fall!"

MARMION

For three weeks the Lady Margaret had expected the duke and her brother;
for three weeks Gilbert had impatiently awaited his father's return.

Toward the close of September, a group of young children might be seen
clustering around an old man, at the edge of the forest, within a
stone's throw of the Church of the Nativity. They were listening eagerly
and delightedly to the patriarch they had surrounded, in whom we
recognize Father Omehr. The faces of the infant band were bright with
innocence and that happy alchemy which turns the merest toy to a costly
treasure. There was a tender piety on the features of those children
that moved the heart. Devotion lies upon the face of youth with a
peculiar fitness. As we see it dwelling in that unsullied abode, we
remember how the cheek of the Madonna is pressed against the infant in
her arms. Their instructor seemed to have caught a portion of their
light-heartedness. Sad recollections and gloomy anticipations were
forgotten. The throes of the empire and dangers of the Church intruded
not; for a moment, the aged missionary felt the elasticity of childhood,
and, as his heart was as pure, his face became as bright as theirs.

"Perhaps you have thought, my children," the priest was saying, while
his hand rested lightly upon the head of the nearest boy, "perhaps you
have thought at times, that had you been little children at Jerusalem
when our Saviour entered the city in triumph, and the people went forth
to meet Him with palm-branches, you too would have run to welcome Him,
and laid fruits and pretty flowers at His feet. Perhaps you have thought
that you would have offered Him some refreshing drink as He tottered
under His cross up the hill of Calvary; that you would have embraced Him
and wept most piteously when He fainted away in agony. How delightful
would it have been to receive a smile from your suffering Lord! You have
still the very same opportunity, my children, you would have had at
Jerusalem. You can still run to meet your Redeemer! He loves the flowers
of a pure heart better than those which make the green fields as
beautiful as the blue sky with its stars; and He values the tears we
shed for our sins more than the pain we should have felt to see Him
suffer. Still continue to bring the fruits and flowers of piety and
obedience to your parents to Jesus, and you will be permitted to wait
upon Him in heaven for all eternity.

"Go, now, and play!