THE BABY

By George Macdonald

Where did you come from, baby dear? 
Out of the everywhere into the here.

Where did you get your eyes so blue? 
Out of the sky as I came through.

What makes the light in them sparkle and spin? 
Some of the starry spikes left in.

Where did you get that little tear? 
I found it waiting when I got here.

What makes your forehead so smooth and high? 
A soft hand stroked it as I went by.

What makes your cheek like a warm white rose? 
Something better than any one knows.

Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss? 
Three angels gave me at once a kiss.

Where did you get that pearly ear? 
God spoke, and it came out to hear.

Where did you get those arms and hands? 
Love made itself into hooks and bands.

Feet, whence did you come, you darling things? 
From the same box as the cherub’s wings.

How did they all just come to be you? 
God thought about me, and so I grew.

But how did you come to us, you dear? 
God thought of you, and so I am here.

THE DISCONTENTED STONECUTTER

Adapted from the Japanese

Once upon a time there was a man who worked from early morning till late at night cutting building stones out of the solid rock.  His pay was small and hardly enough to keep his wife and children from starving.  So the poor stonecutter grew discontented and sighed and moaned bitterly over his hard lot.

One day when his work seemed harder than usual and his troubles more than he could bear he cried out in despair: 

“Oh, I wish I could be rich and lie at ease on a soft couch with a curtain of red silk!”

Just then a beautiful fairy floated down from heaven, and softly said, “Thy wish is granted thee.”  So the poor stonecutter found himself rich and powerful and resting easily on his silken couch with its red curtain.  As he gazed out, however, he saw the king of the country ride by with many horsemen before and behind him, and with a great golden sunshade held over his head.  It irritated the rich man to have no parasol over his head and to see another more powerful than himself, and in his discontentment he exclaimed, “Would that I were a king such as that one.”

Once again his good fairy appeared, waved his wand, and said, “It shall be as thou desirest.”  Immediately the man was king, and before him and behind him rode his men-at-arms, and over his head was a golden sunshade.  But elsewhere the sun shone fiercely down and dried up the vegetation with its terrible heat.  It was reflected into the face of the king so that even the golden sunshade did not keep him from suffering.  Once more he sighed discontentedly, “If I could only be the sun!”

[Illustration:  The stonecutter and his silken couch]