14

“How I tried to think and reason
  Why the fire from one caress
Turned my burning, yearning spirit
  To a cinder of distress. 
Some one told me, I remember,
  Long ago when I was small,
God made every star up yonder,
  Everything—­the world and all. 
Then I thought that in His workshop,
  Up there in the heavens above,
He had made that curious hunger
  Of the heart that we call love. 
P’r’aps my troubles and the waiting
  Stirred me to this queer-like whim;
But I couldn’t help it, Billy,
  I just had to talk to Him.

15

“In the night, when God wa’n’t busy
  And could hear the slightest sound,
I would venture from my hiding
  To the top of North Pole Mound. 
I was sure He’d never let His
  Angels come out this-a-way,
But would use the wind to carry,
  Prayers out here, that people pray. 
So I’d hold my hands, and stopping
  Gusts that tried to struggle free,
Tell them this here simple message
  They must take to you from me: 
’Please, dear God, won’t you tell Billy
  That I’m holding down his claim? 
He don’t come ’cause he’s in trouble. 
  Thank you, God.  He ain’t to blame.’”

16

Long before her honest story
  Faltered to its hallowed close,
Pushing back his untouched supper,
  Tremblingly her guest arose. 
Vain for him to curb emotion,
  Or to stammer out his praise
Through a storm of rude devotion,
  Cast in halting human phrase. 
Vain for him to frame a message
  Never meant for words to tell,
At the joy of reaching heaven
  By that trail that led through hell. 
But his fervent benediction
  Was a passionate embrace,
And the Amen love’s own ending,
  As he kissed her fearless face.

***End of the project gutenberg EBOOK Nancy MACINTYRE***

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