THE GOLDEN MOKUSÉI MOKUSÉI, mokuséi blooming faithfully in the absence of the master, piercing sweet is your subtle fragrance, pervading my soul with the quickening pain of remembrance! Vividly I remember one evening when the master and I went to the temple fair near by and together brought you back with joy. As we passed along the street, carrying you home in a jinrikisha, all the people turned to see whence came the unexpected breath of fragrance permeating the dimly lighted roadway.

"O the sweet scent!" they exclaimed. "O the sweet scent! It is the mokuséi, the mokuséi!"

The next morning we planted you in the garden near the front veranda with the hope of enjoying you in the years to

come.

Since then year by year in the autumn you have more than fulfilled the hope you gave. Your tiny starlike blossoms, orange-hued, almost hidden under the clustering dark green leaves, have bloomed in dainty fragile beauty and filled our guest-room and garden with the sweetest of perfume.

And now coming back to the empty home, I had steeled my heart not to feel the dread loneliness. I thought, I prayed, that I was adamant against the pain of separation in the masterless house. But, alas! I had forgotten the mokuséi we planted together near the guest-room veranda.

On the soft autumn breeze your sweet fragrance is wafted to me. You stir

to vibrant life stilled memories of other days. You recall the beloved presence, the absent sunshine of the house, my heart's lord.

Then start the remembering tears, and under that soft rain the ice of aching bitterness, which bound my heart at the enforced separation, thawed, and I wept.

With renewed freshness the sweetness and tenderness of love returned. The past revived with a poignancy that hurt my quivering soul, and, oh, for the sound of a far-away voice and the touch of a distant hand!

The children play merrily in the garden, unheeding, unknowing the pain of awakened memory in the soul of their lonely mother. Happy voices ring out on the scented air, and my heart grows thin with longing, as a candle-flame blown thin in a gust of wind.

"Come back, beloved, soon!" I cry. "Tarry no longer beyond the seas. Not only the house, but my life, is empty. The mokuséi we planted together in the happy past blooms on in your garden faithfully, keeping alive the tenderest memories of your dear presence. The love you evoked in my heart wakes to the pain of remembrance, and I weep, I weep, with longing for the sunshine of your presence, beloved!"

O mokuséi, mokuséi, blooming faithfully in the absence of the master, piercing sweet is your fragrance that stirs to life stilled memories of the happy

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past! As your ineffable sweetness comes floating on the soft autumn breeze across the garden and into the lonely room, my heart aches, aches with longing for the presence of the beloved.

O the ravishingly sweet scent of the mokuséi! the mokuséi!

AMONG THE LILIES

KODAKARA, children treasures, when I see you stand among the lilies, my white mountain lilies, I know for what I have waited in lonely paths these many long and desolate years.

During the vigils of many a weary night I wept and watched, wondering if any light of love would ever break across the plain of darkness and the hard road it was my pitiable lot in youth to travel.

Ofttimes I despaired, seeing the long gray stretch ahead, and I lifted my hands to the unresponsive heavens above, praying for shelter from the dread storms which at times would sweep across my path. Away to the horizon as far as my straining eye could see the expanse seemed un

broken, and my heart would sink low, ever lower. Then hope whispered to my heart, and faith led me with unfaltering feet onward. But the road seemed to have no end and to wind ever uphill.

False lights now and again glimmered along the wayside, tempting my bewildered gaze. Wonderingly, I beheld these Fata Morgana dance into crooked bypaths. Following the lure sometimes, the lights would vanish, and I would be left alone in darkness, groping in a thorny waste. Then tremblingly I would turn my tear-stained face toward faith's constant star.

This star of hope shone bright and

clear. Buoyantly it guided me through the mists, across the dreary waste and the long, unending road.

Heedless of the bogs and marshes which threatened to engulf me on each side, and the sharp stones over which my tired feet stumbled, I pressed onward, crying my prayer of faith.

In the wistful twilights of vision I beheld the soulcompanion whom the shadowy future years should bring me, and I heard as in a trance the sound of tiny feet echoing through my house of dreams.

But the slow, slow years passed, and I yearned in vain under the unfulfilled promise. And in the cruel wintry dawns I wept that life and youth and hope still mocked me.

At last, unexpectedly, suddenly the word went forth from the Lord of Destiny that all should change. Then day broke across the shadowed roads in an all-illuminating radiThe sun of love arose, dazzling me with its ineffable splendor.

ance.

Wonder of wonders! Sudden summer shone on

my way, dispersing the darkness of the world around me and the chill mists of sadness and despondency, and in the uplifting brightness of love the flowing of water and the caroling of birds in the woodlands became for me a new song.

Promise and perfume and undreamedof joy enfolded me. I had fainted, overwhelmed with ecstasy and amazement, but strong hands sustained me, and strong arms clasped me to a stronger heart.

A sweet intoxication filled life's chalice to the brim, and in the seventh heaven of delight I surrendered myself to love, the fascinating deliverer from desolate days.