DREAMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 854, 24 December 1929, Page 5

DREAMS

First Prize Story Long, long ago, when sadness was unknown, God wished to bestow on His children a great gift. Joy, Conj tentment, and Memories had they already, but these were not enough. Therefore God summoned Happij ness, and bade him travel the high- | ways of the world, so that his presI ence might bless all men. 1 But as time passed, God saw that the people were becoming ungrateful, | and so that they might remember, lie sent for Sorrow, and commanded him to accompany Happiness to the ends of the earth. Thus into the courts of kings, and into the homes of poor men, went the fellow-travellers a strange pair, Happiness in golden cloak and of gallant bearing, and Sorrow with grey coat and bent back, but from the glory of whose eyes no man could turn

away. Yet the hardships of their journey caused a great love to spring up between them, and especially did Sorrow love his less-strong companion.

In fair weather Happiness led the way with ready mirth and jest, but when the road was rough, and he could go no farther, Sorrow would offer his bent back for support, and j tend the bruised feet of his fellow. So it was that the people remembered, and God was content. But soon Sorrow saw that all was not well with Happiness. His eager footsteps lagged, and the golden cloak hung awry. As day succeeded day, Sorrow quietly grieved, while Happiness grew listless, and the road lost its glamour. At last Happiness spoke. “I am sad,” he said, “because your power has become greater than mine. Once I could comfort men after they had known your tears, but their eyes have become so blinded that they will not see the gift I offer them. I can no longer make them forget their grief in laughter and song.” Sorrow’s heart filled with his own tears, and he whispered, “It is srue, brother —my gift is a bitter one: but the Master wills it so. Let us go to Him.” So they turned homeward, and in the dawn they stood before the tall white throne. God listened in silence, then, sending for Joy, Contentment, and Memories, He bade them follow where the others had been, and to heal those whom Sorrow had wounded. But before sunset all three returned with the same story of failure. Joy, brushing his delicate garments that the dust had soiled, told how bad the hearts of men were, and how suffocating the squalor of cities. So he returned to earth to be the playmate of children. Memories came next, and complained that only the old would suffer him—youth forgot too quickly. Contentment, with woeful face, told that cities prisoned him, and even so, only the aged would listen. Youth was too passionate and restless. Sorrow sighed. “They are mortal,” he pleaded, “yet if they could only imagine their desires were fulfilled—” Then God took a candle, and set it in a little lamp. The dim light flickered, then, taking colour from the red evening sky, it burned bravely. God placed the lamp in Happiness’s hands, saying, “Guard it well—it is very fragile; every tear that this flame shines on shall become a dream.” and Youth found his lost desires in So it was that Age was comforted, dreams. Happiness and Sorrow still wander over the earth, hand in hand. The little lamp of dreams sheds its light on the .road of life, that Happiness may not stun*ible, while in Sorrow’s eyes it gleams with greater radiance. Lone Dreamer (Alice Robinson).