Page:My Friend Annabel Lee (1903).pdf/253

 fear, then, if the message of a tender soul comes, one by one they step backward, and in your heart is comfort for the long, long years.

"There have been those that have had happiness that was more than the world, but in the end there was no comfort, for their happiness brought with it tears of joy and emotion that had limitless source.

"If you have wanted happiness and have hungered and thirsted, after there came the message of a tender soul, you were content with a branch from a green pine-tree.

"If you have felt a thousand tender things and have drunk from a thousand cups and then have been about to write it in black lettering that all, all have failed you—if then there came the message of a tender soul, you have written instead that nothing has failed you, and you have