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The Mother's Secret - From Readings Over The Teacups - Five Stories And A Sequel

by Oliver Wendell Holmes

How sweet the sacred legend - if unblamed

In my slight verse such holy things are named -

Of Mary's secret hours of hidden joy,

Silent, but pondering on her wondrous boy!

Ave, Maria! Pardon, if I wrong

Those heavenly words that shame my earthly song!

The choral host had closed the Angel's strain

Sung to the listening watch on Bethlehem's plain,

And now the shepherds, hastening on their way,

Sought the still hamlet where the Infant lay.

They passed the fields that gleaning Ruth toiled o'er, -

They saw afar the ruined threshing-floor

Where Moab's daughter, homeless and forlorn,

Found Boaz slumbering by his heaps of corn;

And some remembered how the holy scribe,

Skilled in the lore of every jealous tribe,

Traced the warm blood of Jesse's royal son

To that fair alien, bravely wooed and won.

So fared they on to seek the promised sign,

That marked the anointed heir of David's line.

At last, by forms of earthly semblance led,

They found the crowded inn, the oxen's shed.

No pomp was there, no glory shone around

On the coarse straw that strewed the reeking ground;

One dim retreat a flickering torch betrayed, -

In that poor cell the Lord of Life was laid

The wondering shepherds told their breathless tale

Of the bright choir that woke the sleeping vale;

Told how the skies with sudden glory flamed,

Told how the shining multitude proclaimed,

"Joy, joy to earth! Behold the hallowed morn

In David's city Christ the Lord is born!

'Glory to God!' let angels shout on high,

'Good-will to men!' the listening earth reply!"

They spoke with hurried words and accents wild;

Calm in his cradle slept the heavenly child.

No trembling word the mother's joy revealed, -

One sigh of rapture, and her lips were sealed;

Unmoved she saw the rustic train depart,

But kept their words to ponder in her heart.

Twelve years had passed; the boy was fair and tall,

Growing in wisdom, finding grace with all.

The maids of Nazareth, as they trooped to fill

Their balanced urns beside the mountain rill,

The gathered matrons, as they sat and spun,

Spoke in soft words of Joseph's quiet son.

No voice had reached the Galilean vale

Of star-led kings, or awe-struck shepherd's tale;

In the meek, studious child they only saw

The future Rabbi, learned in Israel's law.

Beyond the hills that girt the village green;

Save when at midnight, o'er the starlit sands,

Snatched from the steel of Herod's murdering bands,

A babe, close folded to his mother's breast,

Through Edom's wilds he sought the sheltering West.

Then Joseph spake: "Thy boy hath largely grown;

Weave him fine raiment, fitting to be shown;

Fair robes beseem the pilgrim, as the priest;

Goes he not with us to the holy feast?"

And Mary culled the flaxen fibres white;

Till eve she spun; she spun till morning light.

The thread was twined; its parting meshes through

From hand to hand her restless shuttle flew,

Till the full web was wound upon the beam;

Love's curious toil, - a vest without a seam!

They reach the Holy Place, fulfil the days

To solemn feasting given, and grateful praise.

At last they turn, and far Moriah's height

Melts in the southern sky and fades from sight.

All day the dusky caravan has flowed

In devious trails along the winding road;

(For many a step their homeward path attends,

And all the sons of Abraham are as friends.)

Evening has come, - the hour of rest and joy, -

Hush! Hush! That whisper, - "Where is Mary's boy?"

Oh, weary hour! Oh, aching days that passed

Filled with strange fears each wilder than the last, -

The soldier's lance, the fierce centurion's sword,

The crushing wheels that whirl some Roman lord,

The midnight crypt that sucks the captive's breath,

The blistering sun on Hinnom's vale of death!

Thrice on his cheek had rained the morning light;

Thrice on his lips the mildewed kiss of night,

Crouched by a sheltering column's shining plinth,

Or stretched beneath the odorous terebinth.

At last, in desperate mood, they sought once more

The Temple's porches, searched in vain before;

They found him seated with the ancient men, -

The grim old rufflers of the tongue and pen, -

Their bald heads glistening as they clustered near,

Their gray beards slanting as they turned to hear,

Lost in half-envious wonder and surprise

That lips so fresh should utter words so wise.

And Mary said, - as one who, tried too long,

Tells all her grief and half her sense of wrong, -

What is this thoughtless thing which thou hast done?

Lo, we have sought thee sorrowing, O my son!

Few words he spake, and scarce of filial tone,

Strange words, their sense a mystery yet unknown;

Then turned with them and left the holy hill,

To all their mild commands obedient still.

The tale was told to Nazareth's sober men,

And Nazareth's matrons told it oft again;

The maids retold it at the fountain's side,

The youthful shepherds doubted or denied;

It passed around among the listening friends,

With all that fancy adds and fiction lends,

Till newer marvels dimmed the young renown

Of Joseph's son, who talked the Rabbis down.

But Mary, faithful to its lightest word,

Kept in her heart the sayings she had heard,

Till the dread morning rent the Temple's veil,

And shuddering earth confirmed the wondrous tale.

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall

A mother's secret hope outlives them all.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Hushed was the voice, but still its accents thrilled

The throbbing hearts its lingering sweetness filled.

The simple story which a tear repays

Asks not to share the noisy breath of praise.

A trance-like stillness, - scarce a whisper heard,

No tinkling teaspoon in its saucer stirred;

A deep-drawn sigh that would not be suppressed,

A sob, a lifted kerchief told the rest.

"Come now, Dictator," so the lady spoke,

"You too must fit your shoulder to the yoke;

You'll find there's something, doubtless, if you look,

To serve your purpose, - so, now take the book."

"Ah, my dear lady, you must know full well,

'Story, God bless you, I have none to tell.'

To those five stories which these pages hold

You all have listened, - every one is told.

There's nothing left to make you smile or weep, -

A few grave thoughts may work you off to sleep."