The Pearl | Page 6

years didst thou lead
Nor learned to please God, nor to
pray,
No Paternoster knew nor creed,
And made a queen on the first
day!
I may not think, so God me speed!
That God from right would
swerve away;
As a countess, damsel, by my fay!
To live in heaven
were a fair boon,
Or like a lady of less array,
But a queen! Ah, no!
it is too soon."
"With Him there is no soon nor late,"
Replied to me that worthy
wight;
"True always is His high mandate;
He doth no evil, day nor
night.
Hear Matthew in the mass narrate,
In the Gospel of the God
of might,
His parable portrays the state
Of the Kingdom of Heaven,
clear as light:
'My servants,' saith He, 'I requite
As a lord who will
his vineyard prune;
The season of the year is right,
And labourers
must be hired soon.'"
"Right soon the hirelings all may see
How the master with the dawn
arose;
To hire his labourers forth went he,
And workmen stout and
strong he chose.
For a penny a day they all agree,
Even as the
master doth propose,

They toil and travail lustily,
Prune, bind, and
with a ditch enclose.
Then to the market-place he goes,
And finds
men idle at high noon:
'How can a man stand here who knows
The
vineyards should be tilled so soon?'"

"'Soon as day dawned we hither won,
And no man hath our labour
sought;
We have been standing since rose the sun
And no one bids
us to do aught.'
'Enter my vineyard every one,'
The master answered
quick as thought:
'The work that each by night has done
I will truly
pay, withholding naught.'
Among the vines they went and wrought,

While morning, noon and afternoon,
More labourers the master
brought,
Until the night must gather soon."
"Soon fell the time of evensong.
An hour before the sun was set,
He
saw more idlers, young and strong;
His voice was sober with regret:

'Why stand ye idle all day long?'
'No man,' they said, 'hath hired us
yet.'
'Go to my vineyard, fear no wrong;
Each man an honest wage
shall get.'
The day grew dark and darker yet,
"Before the rising of
the moon;
The master who would pay his debt,
Bade summon all
the hirelings soon."
X
"The lord soon called his steward: 'Go
Bring in the men quick as ye
may;
Give them the wages that I owe,
And, lest they aught against
me say,
Range them along here in a row,
To each alike his penny
pay;
Start with the last who standeth low,
And to the first proceed
straightway,'
And then the first began to pray,
Complaining they
had travailed sore:
'These wrought but one hour of the day,
We
think we should receive the more.'"
"'More have we served,' they muttered low,
'Who have endured the
long day's heat,
Than these who not two hours toiled so;
Why
should their claim with ours compete?'
Said the master: 'I pay all I
owe;
Friend, no injustice shalt thou meet;

Take that which is thine
own and go.
For a penny we settled in the street;
Why dost thou
now for more entreat?
Thou wast well satisfied before.
Once made,
a bargain is complete;
Why shouldst thou, threatening, ask for more?"

"'What can be more within my gift
Than what I will with mine to do?

Let not thine eyes to evil shift,
Because I trusty am, and true.'

'Thus I,' said Christ, 'all men shall sift.
The last shall be the first of
you;
And the first last, however swift,
For many are called, but
chosen, few.'
And thus poor men may have their due,
That late and
little burden bore;
Their work may vanish like the dew,
The mercy
of God is much the more."
"More gladness have I, herewithin,
Of flower of life, and noble name,

Than all men in the world might win,
Who thought their righteous
deeds to name.
Nathless even now did I begin;
To the vineyard as
night fell I came,
But my Lord would not account it sin;
He paid
my wages without blame.
Yet others did not fare the same,
Who
toiled and travailed there before,
And of their hire might nothing
claim,
Perchance shall not for a year more."
Then more, and openly, I spake:
"From thy tale no reason can I wring;

God's righteousness doth ever wake,
Else Holy Writ is a fabled
thing.
From the Psalter one verse let us take,
That may to a point
this teaching bring:
'Thou requitest each for his deed's sake,
Thou
high and all-foreknowing King.'
If one man to his work did cling

All day, and thou wert paid before,
Most wage falls to least labouring,

And ever the less receives the more."
XI
"Of more or less where God doth reign,
There is no chance," she
gently said,
"For, whether large or small his gain,
Here every man
alike is paid.
No niggard churl our High Chieftain,
But lavishly His
gifts are made,
Like streams from a moat that flow amain,
Or
rushing waves that rise unstayed.

Free were his pardon whoever
prayed
Him who to save man's soul did vow,
Unstinted his bliss,
and undelayed,
For the grace of God is great enow."

"But now thou wouldst my wit checkmate,
Making my wage as
wrong appear;
Thou say'st that I am come too late,
Of so large hire
to be worthy here;
Yet sawest thou ever small