feet on the floor, nor the drag of the maid's shoes, but Granya's firm
light step he could sense somehow, and then came a little sound to him,
that he knew was her dropping to her knees by Alan Beg's bed, while she
recited for him, taught him, the great prayer.... Shane bowed his head
in reverence.... He could see the dim beauty of her face, her great
trusting eyes, her sweet hands.... Almost could he hear her voice, so
close was she in his heart....
§ 7
"Our Father, ..."
He could see the symbols that were in her mind, because they were in his
too, the gentle pictures that translated the thought these words evoked:
the great majestic figure with the strong hands and gentle eyes, the
eyes that smiled when colts gamboled, or a rabbit flashed across the
grass, that loved the beauty of the garden when He walked in it at the
close of day. One felt Him now and then as He went through His smallest
world, perhaps in the evening when the crickets sang, perhaps over the
moonlit waters, or with the little winds of dawn.... Such strength and
kindliness, and the majestic eyes were troubled; for, sympathetic toward
the wayward, the bothered, the weak.... They only hardened with the
promise of terror for the hypocrite, the traitor, for those who devoured
widows' houses....
"Who art in heaven, ..."
He smiled to himself at the thought of heaven. There was where one's
fancy was free, to realize all the sweet desires of what was good in
one.... To those who deserved it God would not begrudge His heaven.... A
quiet place, Shane thought, a hushed place, a place of rest.... Whither
one might go to realize again all the beauty one had ever known.... All
that one had held sweet and wonderful would be there--they had not
died.... A white magic would bring back the laughter of babies, and
kisses gently given ... and all estrangements of friends and lovers
would be eased there, and they would be brought together in a magical
trysting-place, and there would be no unharmony.... All the horses one
had ever loved would take shape in the air, with necks stretched and
whinnying recognition.... All the great ships one had wondered at would
appear when called, their spread of snowy canvas, their tapering
spars.... All the dogs one had had would be there ... their yelps of
joy, their sweet brown eyes, their ears up, their tails wagging ... all
the dogs would be there!
"Hallowed be Thy name ..."
The head must bow there. The name evoked a thought, and the thought was
ineffable, such glory and sweetness and strength it had.... Names
brought pictures. When the word "Helen" was uttered, one saw the burned
towers of Troy.... And "Venice," massive shadows and great moonlit
waters.... And Genghis Khan brought the riot of galloping horses and the
Tartar blades a-flash.... Such power great words had, and this was the
greatest word, so great as to be terrible, and not to be mentioned by
petty men, who cheapen with their grudging tongues.... No picture there,
but some great anthem of the stars.... Not as yet could our ears hear
it.... Nor would they ever hear it, if we had not reverence.
"Thy kingdom come ..."
Some immense plan existed, which human mind could never see. No
practical wisdom could ever grasp. Were all the sum of practical wisdom
gathered in a little room, and infused with spirit until it burst the
four walls of the world, yet it might not grasp it.... Yet all things
worked that this plan should come to fruition. The stars rolled in their
courses. The great winds came. There fell the rain of April and the soft
December snow.... And the kingdom was a good kingdom, for nothing evil
conquered ever.... It died and was eliminated, and when it was all as
nothing then might the kingdom come ... no arbitrary blowing of
Gabriel's trumpet, but that foremost sweetness that comes from the west
wind....
"Thy will be done on earth ..."
It was always done on earth, but the ignoble, the inglorious, the small
put their petty obstacles in its way, and delayed the coming of the
kingdom.... Men grew engrossed in their affairs, grew self-sufficient. A
little money in their pockets, and God was forgotten. A little more and
they despised their fellow-men, and hatred arose. And evil wars came,
and years were lost.... Cunning men put the emotions, the ideals, the
actions of glorious men up for barter.... And the men who were tricked
brooded.... And the cunning men took the land and the waters and the
light, and worked tortuously until they could sell them at a price....
And the things God had made for his people were the means to procure
these dark folk wine and mistresses and the state of kings.... Such was
not the doing of the Will.... But one day it would be worked out by men
how these things could not ever again be.... The slow certain coming of
the kingdom....
"As it is in heaven ..."
From the green resting-place came all that was sweet and harmonious, the
shape of clouds, the high spirit of horses, the loyalty of dogs, the
graceful movement swans have, and the song of the lesser birds. From
that green resting-place came the gold of the gorse, and the sweet line
of trees, and the purple the heather has--the loved heather. Thence came
the word that set the friendly moon on high, and put out the white
beauty of the young and alternated sunshine with the rains of spring.
All was done there according to wisdom and beauty.
"Give us this day our daily bread ..."
That was no whine for the prisoner's dole. That was the simplicity of
asking that the moon and the sun still rise. Give beauty to women, and
grace to children, and songs for poets to sing. Let not the green tree
wither, but send it rain. And give a little softness to the hearts of
callous men. And remind us that widows live, and that there are
fatherless. Teach us how to heal sickly children, and be easy on horses.
And give us gentleness. And when roses grow on the walls in June, put a
bud in our hearts....
"And forgive us our trespasses ..."
The picture that came into Shane's mind then was not the picture of an
abased man beating his breast, but the thought of a mature man clanging
through the halls of heaven past every guard until he came where wisdom
and beauty was, and standing and throwing back his head: "I have done
wrong," he would say, "rotten wrong, and I'm wretched about it." And
there would be an answer: "You did right to come."
"As we forgive those who trespass against us ..."
Ah! That was hard! That was the most difficult thing in the world, the
Celt in Shane knew. The horripilation of the skin, the twitching
nostrils, the feeling for the knife in the armpit.... When one was
young, the careless word, the savage blow, the brooding feud.... But men
grew better with the increase of the years, and with maturity came the
sense that not every one could insult or hurt a man. The jibes and
trespasses of petty people meant so little, and one sensed the Destiny,
the strange veiled One, balanced in His own wise time the evil done a
man with unexpected good.... One grew wiser even yet with the years and
knew that a great wrong was outside one's personal jurisdiction.... One
had to leave that to the broad justice of the High God.... One could
appeal there, as with the old _cri de haro_ of Norman low.... _Haro!
haro! A l'aide, mon prince. On me fait tort!_ Hither! Hither! Help me,
my king; one dropped on one's knees in the market-place: I am being
injured overmuch! And it was the prince's duty to help feal men.... To
forgive trespasses--only one understood in maturity, one grew to it....
The strong and wise were the meek, not the weaklings ... the men who
knew that justice was absolute ... the men with the calm eyes and the
grim smile, they were the terrible meek....
"And lead us not into temptation ..."
A little cry of humility that was, a very human reminder to the Only
Perfect One that we in this very small world were weak. Work we had to
do, destinies to fulfil, but under weakness, or from false strength, one
might wander from our appointed path.... The power of office, let it
breed arrogance ... the sense of money, let it not bring smug
callousness.... And the singers of the world be proud only of the trust,
but humble in themselves as the birds are among the trees.... And let
not strength have contempt, but gentleness....
"But deliver us from all evil ..."
There were dark places in the world, and one needed guidance there,
protection.... From Satan, who is not a spirit, but a horrible miasma,
that floats in little vapors here and there, when the clean winds are
resting ... from the warm inviting and evil jungle where one might seek
relief in distress, or having been over-long in the high air ... from
the twisted souls of dark men and women who seek to sully as with
writhing piteous hands ... from deep sinister pools we know are thick
with horror but feel charmed toward, as one feels like plunging to death
from the summit of some building terribly high.... From these, Lord God,
deliver us!
"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
"For ever and ever."
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Transcriber's note: The 'o' in 'Froken' has a circle over it. It is not|
|represented in this text. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+