Page:Captain Craig; a book of poems.djvu/69

Rh The straw-shine of October; and had that Been truth, we should have humored him not less, Albeit he had fooled us,—for he said That we had made him glad by coming to him. And he was glad: the manner of his words Revealed the source of them; and the gray smile Which lingered like a twilight on his face Told of its own slow fading that it held The promise of the sun. Cadaverous, God knows it was; and we knew it was honest.

"So you have come to have the old man read To you from his last will and testament: Well, it will not be long—not very long— So listen." He brought out from underneath His pillow a new manuscript, and said, "You are doing well to come and have me read My testament. There are men in the world Who say of me, if they remember me, That I am poor;—and I believe the ways Of certain men who never find things out Are stranger than the way Lord Bacon wrote Leviticus, and Faust." He fixed his eyes Abstractedly on something far from us, And with a look that I remembered well Gazed hard the while we waited. But at length