Page:Aladdin O'Brien (1902).pdf/309

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

these, and more, he has left me heart's-ease. This little flower," continued the senator, "is sown in times of great doubt and sorrow and trouble, and it will grow only for a good gardener, one who has learned to bow patiently in all things to God's will, and to set his feet valiantly against the stony way which God appoints. I call Margaret 'Heart's-ease,' and I call you, too, 'Heart's-ease,' Aladdin, for you are becoming like a son to me in my declining years. Consider the river, how it flows," said the old man, "smoothly to the sea, asking no questions, and making no lamentations against the length of its days, and receiving cheerfully into the steadfast current of its going alike the bitter waters and the sweet."

We have forgotten Aladdin's songs and the tunes which he made, for the people's ear is not tuned to them any more. But that is a little thing. It is pleasant to think of that night when, the knocking of his heart against his ribs louder than the