Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/89

Rh And the robin answered:

‘Because I alone, of all birds, strove to draw forth the cruel nails in Calvary; so my breast is ever red with the sacred blood.’

‘And what song bearest thou upon thy bill,’ saith the voice, ‘that would be welcome here?’

‘The prayer of a mother for the soul of her little child,’ quoth the robin.

When he saith this the doors of Paradise were opened, and upon the threshold stood one of the archangels of the Lord, and his face was glad and glorious as the sun. And when he saw the little bride, with her burden of trembling souls clinging to her dress and hair, he bade her enter.

‘Thou hast done well,’ saith he, ‘and there is joy in heaven over thy return.’

And as he led her by the hand the souls dropped from her and flew through the golden gates with loud cries of joy.

So brought she to heaven the soul of Black Roderick, that had been lost but for her great and suffering love. And from the 6