Death Dread (VERSE)

...A hermit would be a great acquisition in our garden--like a sundial, and a bird-bath, he would fit in and harmonize with the surroundings...

...Its power Will blanch your darkest hour...

...I must keep them securely covered with wire netting, and woe is me if I forget and leave it off an hour or two...

...I frown at him severdy...

...And, oh, look at the Japanese morning-glory vine--a blue flame--a blaze of azure glory...

...A topknotted bird cocks his bright eye at me and says "Cheer up...

...If it were not for Saint Francis, I would--yes, I would--feed him poison pills or something...

...I wish (think I)--I wish that I could get up an hour earlier and make a meditation out here...

...There was the time Towser planted a bone in the place where I had just planted a well-rooted hydrangea cutting, and when I discovered the crime, neither hydrangea nor root could be found, but the bone was there, quite safe...

...I have asked in all seriousness, only to be greeted with cheap witticisms from those who think I am joking...

...I raised two tiny, delicate ferns, and put them into two dainty china pots, and gave them to the music room Sister, who had a handy table for them...

...I have often read of hermits raising little patches of corn and beans, and I think it would be a delightful way to do...

...I planted them in a shady spot, mellow and soft with leaf mold and humus...

...For this, my beacon spark, Will burn throughout the dark Of time, its constant flame Starring the sky's wide frame...

...He eats my pet parsley plants--right down to the roots he eats them...

...He pulled them up for weeds the next day, while I was in my classroom converting the heathen...

...DeatA Dread 0 gaunt and pale death dread, Who chill the path ahead, I bear a glowing charm Against your fearful harm...

...One half-holiday, it being rainy, I set to work blissfully, having first girded up habit skirts and fortified myself with a pair of large substantial rubbers and two aprons...

...She nursed them with a mother's care, in between music pupils, and delighted to see new fronds reach out their green fingers from day to day...

...And I shall allow him to dig in my garden during the long hours when I must he converting the heathen...

...And drag in the mud it did, all afternoon, I potting and digging and transplanting the while...

...Listen: there is, down deep A constant light I keep Within my heart...

...This is purely hypocritical, as I am a famous sleepy-head...

...I discovered my plight just in time to answer the bell for Rosary, Angelus and supper...

...My day has little need To fear what worms may feed After your icy breath Has frozen mine in death...

...Having no time to gather up the fragments then, she went in to chapel, and the subject she chose for her meditation was, "An enemy hath done this I" Sometimes good folk, knowing my mental aberratlons, bring me plants and cuttings, upon which I thank them from my heart, and ask God to thank them from His heart (which is something more like) and hasten off to stick them into mud...

...Which reminds me of another story...

...Cool and sweet it is, with a hint of a wind from the sea, and the low morning sun stretching the trees' shadows out to immense lengths...

...But the rascal knows about Saint Francis, and so he is bold and impenitent, and he winks at me, and says "Cheer up...

...My certain star of love, All luminous above Your phosphorous decay, Will lead to perfect day...

...Thenceforth my care was to keep behind a pillar or in a shadowy corner with the disreputable scapular, until after supper came time for a change and a trip to the laundry...

...Why should I fear you, blind, Who never knew to find Joy in each day and night, Peace under shade, or light Demon of frost, you know Not the eternal glow Of incense on my hearthYou parasite of earth...

...Gardening and hermiting seem to go together, somehow...

...But since there are grave obstacles in the way of my ever becoming a hermit, I have often wondered why we could not import one...

...One could garden indefinitely without at all disturbing one's state of being a hermit, and then, too, one could be an extremely eremitical hermit without ever having to stop gardening...

...One showery night she put them out on the veranda for their health's sake, and in the morning before meditation time, she opened the door and saw what was left of them lying where the two playful puppy dogs had distributed them--a root here, a bit of green there, pot over there, and earth everywhere...

...THE COMMONWEAL October 9, I9Z9 ,i and "Deo gratias...

...I shall continue to inquire hopefully, however, until I find a good hermit who knows violets from cockleburs, and I shall install him in our rabbit shed, or our hollow tree, or anywhere his eremitical heart desires...

...Though following your steps, I lift joy to my lips: And when in snow you cower, My fancy springs to flower...

...But you, O pale death dread, Vanish in endless shade While I, a child of light, Walk, fearless of your might...

...I led Towser to the scene and spanked him soundly with a little stick, since which time, whenever I come near, he casts an apprehensive brown eye on me and looks thoughtful...

...But what a meditation--surely each one of these blue glories is singing "Praise God !" There are tragedies in my garden, too...

...Translated by Alice Bidwell Hlesenber9 [rom the Spanish of CONCHA ESPINA...

...I had put my trust in a deceitful safety pin which presently betrayed me and let a yard-length of white scapular down to drag in the mud...

...A kind English lady who also is afflicted with gardenitis gave me some cuttings of sweet English violets--"the long-stemmed kind," she said...

...Are hermits so rare nowadays...

...Our native man-of-all-work had never seen violets, and besides, he is not overly blessed with brains...

...My scabiouse bud is an infinitesimal hit larger, fatter and more like an old maid's pincushion than it was yesterday...