heavy with grief

He grew to be a young man, and was busy at his books when an old servant came to him and

said:

"Thy mother is no more. I bring her blessing on her darling son!"

Again at night he saw the star, and all that former company. Said his sister's angel to the

leader:

"Is my brother come?"

And he said, "Thy mother!"

A mighty cry of joy went forth through all the star, because the mother was reunited to her

two children. And he stretched out his arms and cried, "O, mother, sister, and brother, I am

here! Take me!" And they answered him, "Not yet," and the star was shining.

He grew to be a man, whose hair was turning gray, and he was sitting in his chair by the

fireside, heavy with grief, and with his face bedewed with tears, when the star opened once

again.

Said his sister's angel to the leader: "Is my brother come?"

And he said, "Nay, but his maiden daughter."

And the man who had been the child saw his daughter, newly lost to him, a celestial creature

among those three, and he said, "My daughter's head is on my sister's bosom, and her arm is

around my mother's neck, and at her feet there is the baby of old time, and I can bear the

parting from her, God be praised!"