mrs. gordon manages the house and her reward is to sit at the head of the table. but she pays kirsty infinitely more for the privilege than any but kirsty can know, in the form of leisure for things she likes far better than housekeeping—among the rest, for the discovery of such songs as this, the last of hers i have seen:—

love is home.

love is the part, and love is the whole;

love is the robe, and love is the pall;

ruler of heart and brain and soul,

love is the lord and the slave of all!

i thank thee, love, that thou lov’st me;

i thank thee more that i love thee.

love is the rain, and love is the air;

love is the earth that holdeth fast;

love is the root that is buried there,

love is the open flower at last!

i thank thee, love all round about,

that the eyes of my love are looking out.

love is the sun, and love is the sea;

love is the tide that comes and goes;

flowing and flowing it comes to me;

ebbing and ebbing to thee it flows!

oh my sun, and my wind, and tide!

my sea, and my shore, and all beside!

light, oh light that art by showing;

wind, oh wind that liv’st by motion;

thought, oh thought that art by knowing;

will, that art born in self-devotion!

love is you, though not all of you know it;

ye are not love, yet ye always show it!

faithful creator, heart-longed-for father,

home of our heart-infolded brother,

home to thee all thy glories gather—

all are thy love, and there is no other!

o love-at-rest; we loves that roam—

home unto thee, we are coming home!

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