The chief part of little Molly’s religious lessons, I do not mean training, consisted in a prayer or two in rhyme, and a few verses of the kind then in use among catholics. Here is a prayer which her nurse taught her, as old, I take it, as Chaucer’s time at least:—
Hail be thou, Mary, that high
sittest in throne!
I beseech thee, sweet lady,
grant me my boon—
Jesus to love and dread, and
my life to amend soon,
And bring me to that bliss
that never shall be done.
And here are some verses quite as old, which her mother taught her. I give them believing that in understanding and coming nearer to our fathers and mothers who are dead, we understand and come nearer to our brothers and sisters who are alive. I change nothing but the spelling, and a few of the forms of the words.
Jesu, Lord, that madest me,
And with thy blessed
blood hast bought,
Forgive that I have grieved
thee
With word, with
will, and eke with thought.
Jesu, for thy wounds’
smart,
On feet and on
thine hands two,
Make me meek and low of heart,
And thee to love
as I should do.
Jesu, grant me mine asking,
Perfect patience
in my disease,
And never may I do that thing
That should thee
in any wise displease.
Jesu, most comfort for to
see
Of thy saints
every one,
Comfort them that careful
be,
And help them
that be woe-begone.
Jesu, keep them that be good,
And amend them
that have grieved thee,
And send them fruits of early
food,
As each man needeth
in his degree.
Jesu, that art, without lies,
Almighty God in
trinity,
Cease these wars, and send
us peace
With lasting love
and charity.
Jesu, that art the ghostly
stone
Of all holy church
in middle-earth,
Bring thy folds and flocks
in one,
And rule them
rightly with one herd.
Jesu, for thy blissful blood,
Bring, if thou
wilt, those souls to bliss
From whom I have had any good,
And spare that
they have done amiss.
This old-fashioned hymn lady Margaret had learned from her grandmother, who was an Englishwoman of the pale. She also had learned it from her grandmother.
One day, by some accident, Dorothy had not reached her post of naiad before Molly arrived in presence of her idol, the white horse, her usual application to which was thence for the moment in vain. Having waited about three seconds in perfect patience, she turned her head slowly round, and gazed in her nurse’s countenance with large questioning eyes, but said nothing. Then she turned again to the horse. Presently a smile broke over her face, and she cried in the tone of one who had made a great discovery,
‘Horse has ears of stone: he cannot hear, Molly.’