Let us learn all we can that is right and worthy for the strengthening
of the mind, for the cultivation of the heart, for the good and joy of
others; for these things are the spirit of music.




CHAPTER XXV.

THE CHILD AT PLAY.


"When the long day is past, the steps turn homeward."

Once a child played on the sea-shore. The waves sang and the sand
shone and the pebbles glistened. There was light everywhere; light
from the blue sky, and from the moving water, and from the gleaming
pebbles.

The little one, in its happiness, sang with the murmuring sea and
played with the stones and the shells that lay about. Joy was
everywhere and the child was filled with it.

But the day passed. And the little one grieved in its heart to leave
the beautiful place. Delight was there and many rare things that one
could play with and enjoy.

The child could not leave them all. Its heart ached to think of them
lying there alone by the sea. And it thought: