“ As, day and night, adream I lie
Upon my crippled back in bed,
And watch it up against the sky.
My mother, hunching in her chair,
Day-long, and stitching trousers there--
At three-and-three the dozen pair...
She'd sit all night, and stitch for me,
Her son, if I could only wear...
She never lifts her eyes to see
The big crane swinging through the air. ”

“ Of that black desert's bitter night,
Beneath the freezing stars, so white
And hunger-pinched: and at the sight
Keen pity touched him to the quick;
Although he never said a word,
Till she had finished every crumb.
And then he led her to a seat
A little closer to the heat,
But well beyond the deadly stife.
And in the ashes, side by side,
They sat together, dazed and dumb,
With eyes upon the ovens' glare,
Each looking nakedly on life. ”

“ That stretched before him, dead and black,
He muttered: "It's a chance the light
Has found me living still ... and she--
She, too ... and Michael ... and through me
God knows whom I may wake to-night." ”

“ But we must climb, and see! the mist is gone.
The stars are shining clear...
Think, son, your mother's at the top;
And you'll be up in no time. See, that star,
The brightest star that ever shone,
Just think it's she who watches you;
And knows that you'll be brave and true.
Come, lad: we may not stop... ”

“ To look upon her in her shroud;
And saw again the quiet face
That filled with light that shameful place,
Touched with the tender, youthful grace
Death brings the broken and outworn
To comfort kind hearts left to mourn. ”

“ And that cold, cruel, bitter night
Had taken all the heart from her...
If Michael knew, she felt quite sure...
For she would rather drop stone-dead
Than live as some ... if she had cared
To feed upon the devil's bread,
She could have earned it easily... ”

“ That ceaselessly had sounded, night and morn,
With moaning echoes through the mist, to warn
The blind, bewildered ships at sea:
Yet, though as tired as any dog,
I lay awhile, and seemed to feel
Fog lying on my eyes still heavily;
And still, the horn unceasingly
Sang through my head, till gradually
Through night's strange stillness, over me
Sweet sleep began to steal,
Sleep, blind and thick and fleecy as the fog. ”

“ They'd taken refuge from the night.
And, as I wondered drowsily,
It seemed yet queerer and more queer;
For round the Head the rocks are sheer,
With scarce a foothold for a bird;
And it seemed quite beyond belief
That any wrecked upon the reef,
Could swim ashore, and scale the crag,
By daylight, let alone by night
But, they who live beside the sea
Know naught's too wonderful to be:
And, as I sat, and heard
The quiet breathing of the child,
Great weariness came over me ”

“ But when I raised the lantern o'er my head,
I saw a naked boy upon the bed,
Who crouched and shuddered on the folded sheet;
And, on his face, before my feet,
A naked man, who lay as if quite dead,
Though on his broken knuckles blood was red:
And all my wits awakened at the sight. ”

“ And loud all night the cock-grouse talks...
There's naught in heaven or earth to fear...
The pit-pat-pattering of feet...
A yelp, a whistle, and a bleat..."
And then, she started up in bed:
I felt her staring, as she said:
"I wonder if he ever hears
The pit-pat-pattering of sheep,
Or smells the broken bracken stalks...
While she is lying sound-asleep
Beside him ... after all these years--
Just nineteen years, this very night--
Remembering? ... and now, his son,
A man ... and never stood upright!" ”

“ I've laid him on white mist, instead:
He's fallen sheer..."
Then, I sprang up; and cried: "Your son is here!"
And, taking up the sleeping boy,
I bore him to his father's arms:
And, as he nestled to his breast,
Kind life came back to those wild eyes;
And filled them with deep joy:
And, free of all alarms,
The son and father lay,
Together, in sweet rest,
While through the window stole the strange, clear light of day.
THE MONEY
They found her cold upon the bed. ”

“ Then, whispering huskily: "She's dying,
While I look on and watch her choking!"
He roused: and pulled himself together:
And rose, and went where she was lying:
And, bending o'er the senseless lass,
In his weak arms he lifted her ”

“ Just where I stood, had reckoned o'er
That four-pound-seventeen-and-five.
"Aye, like enough ... for soon we heard
That in a week he'd looked to wed.
He'd meant to give the girl that night
The money to buy furniture. ”