Dreamland | Page 3

to
be workin'. But what could I do? There ain't nothin' I could be doin'."
"Did n't I hear you complaining of me a little while ago, because I did
not carry heavy enough loads of honeysuckle scent and did not come
often enough? I carried all I was able to bear, for I am not very strong
nowadays, and I came as often as I could. In fact, I did my best the first
thing that came to hand. I want you to do the same. That is duty. I don't
bear malice toward you because you were dissatisfied with me. You did
not know. If you tried the best you could and people complained, you
ought not to let their discontent discourage you. I brought you a whiff
of perfume; you can bring some one a sincere effort. By and by, when I
am stronger and can blow good gales and send the great ships safely
into port and waft to land the fragrant smell of their spicy cargo, you
may be doing some greater work and giving the world something it has
been waiting for."
"The world don't wait for things," said Larry. "It goes right on; it does
n't care. I 'm hungry and ragged, and I have n't no place to sleep; but the
world ain't a-waitin' fer me ter get things ter eat, ner clo'es to me back,
ner a soft bed. It ain't a-waiting fer nothin', as I can see."
"It does not stand still," replied the voice; "but it is waiting,
nevertheless. If you are expecting a dear, dear person--your mother, for
instance--"

"I ain't got no mother," interrupted Larry, with a sorrowful sigh; "she
died."
"Well, then--your sister," suggested the voice.
"I ain't got no sister. I ain't got nobody. I 'm all by meself," insisted the
boy.
"Then suppose, for years and years you have been dreaming of a friend
who is to fill your world with beauty as no one else could do,--who
among all others in the world will be the only one who could show you
how fair life is. While you would not stand still and do nothing what
time you were watching for her coming, you would be always waiting
for her, and when she was there you would be glad. That is how the
world feels about its geniuses,--those whom it needs to make it more
wonderful and great. It is waiting for you. Don't disappoint it. It would
make you sad unto death if the friend of whom you had dreamed
should not come at last, would it not?"
Larry nodded his head in assent. "Does it always know 'em?" he asked.
"I mean does the world always be sure when the person comes, it 's the
one it dreamed of? Mebbe I'd be dreamin' of some one who was
beautiful, and mebbe the real one would n't look like what I thought,
and I 'd let her go by."
"Ah, little Lawrence, the world has failed so too. It has let its beloved
ones go by; and then, when it was too late, it has called after them in
pleading to return. They never come back, but the world keeps
repeating their names forever. That is its punishment and their fame."
"What does it need me for?" asked Larry.
"It needs you to paint for it the pictures you see amid the clouds and on
the earth."
"Can't they see 'em?" queried the boy.
"No, not as you can. Their sight is not clear enough. God wants them to

know of it, and so He sends them you to make it plain to them. It is as
though you went to a foreign country where the people's speech was
strange to you. You could not know their meaning unless some one
who understood their language and yours translated it for you. He
would be the only one who could make their meaning clear to you. He
would be an interpreter."
"How am I to get that thing you spoke about that 'd take me up to
heaven, so's I could bring down the beautiful things I see?" inquired
Larry. "Where is it?"
"Inspiration?" asked the voice. "That is everywhere,--all about you,
within and without you. You have only to pray to be given sight clear
enough to see it and power to use it. But now I must leave you. I have
given you my message; give the world yours. Good-by, Lawrence,
good-by;" and the voice had ceased.
Larry stretched out his hands and cried, "Come back, oh, come back!"
But the echo of his own words was all he heard in response. He lay
quite motionless and still for some time after that, thinking about all the
voice had said to him, and