Summer and spring did with each other vie,
  Offering to Him the fragrance of their store;
Chanting sweet notes, the birds around him fly,
  Wondering why earth had checkered so her floor.

THE MYSTIC THORN

ADAPTED FROM TRADITIONAL SOURCES

“Three hawthornes also that groweth in Werall
Do burge and bere grene leaves at Christmas
As fresshe as other in May.”

It was Christmas day in the year 63.  The autumn colors of red and gold had long since faded from the hills, and the trees which covered the island valley of Glastonbury, the Avalon or Apple-tree isle of the early Britons, were bare and leafless.  The spreading, glass-like waters encircling it round about gleamed faintly in the pale afternoon light of the winter’s day.  The light fell also on the silver stems of the willows and on the tall flags and bending reeds and osiers which bordered the marsh island.  Westward the long ranges of hills running seaward were purple in the distance and their tops were partly hidden by the misty white clouds which rested lightly upon them.  To the south rose sharply and abruptly a high, pointed hill, the tor of Glastonbury.

It was nearing the sunset hour when a little band of men in pilgrim garb, approaching from the west and climbing the long, hilly ridge, came within sight of this “isle of rest.”  Twelve pilgrims there were in all, in dress and appearance very unlike the fair-haired Britons who at that time dwelt in the land.  One, he who led the way, was an old man.  His hair was white and his long, white beard fell upon his breast, but he was tall and erect and bore no other signs of age.  In his hand he carried a stout hawthorn staff.

The men were climbing slowly up the hill, for they were all weary with long travelling.  And here at the summit of the ridge they stopped to look out over the wooded hills, the wide-spreading waters and the grassy island with its leafless thickets of oak and alder.  Sitting down to rest, they spoke one to another of their long journeying from the far-distant land of Palestine and of their hope that here their pilgrimage might have end.

Those who were with him called their leader Joseph of Arimathea.  He it was who had been known among the Jews many years before as a counsellor, “a good man, and a just,” and who, when the Saviour was crucified on Calvary, had given his sepulchre to receive the body of the Lord.

From this tomb upon the third day came the risen Saviour; but the people, thinking that Joseph had stolen away the body, seized and imprisoned him in a chamber where there was no window.  They fastened the door and put a seal upon the lock and placed men before the door to guard it.  Then the priests and the Levites contrived to what death they should put him; but when they sent for Joseph to be brought forth he could not be found, though the seal was still upon the lock and the guard before the door.