"I'll take you home again, Kathleen."
Ah, sweet,
How tender-sweet those lilting phrases
were!

They soothed away the weariness, and
brought
Such peace to one worn woman, over-
wrought,

That she forgot the things which vexed
her so:
The too outrageous price of calico,

The shop-girl's look of pitying insolence
Because she paused to count the dwindling
pence.

The player stopped. But the rapt vision
stayed.
That woman faced life's worries unafraid.

The sugar shortage now had ceased to be
An insurmountable calamity.

Her kingdom was not bacon, no, nor
butter,
But things more costly still, too rare to
utter.