96 A CHILD OF THE PEOPLE 



plashes in the marble basin with its message of love 

 for the hurrying crowd. " Stay," it says, " stay 

 with me. Why do you pass so fast and heedless, 

 with downcast eye and troubled, careworn brow? 

 What is gold but a mocking phantom, and the 

 seeking it but sorrow and death in life ? Look up, 

 up between the housetops ; look away from the ugly, 

 breathless pavement, to where the sun is shining and 

 the sky is blue. I have something to tell you about 

 that ; I have things to say of beauty and purity and 

 love. Stay and listen. Stay — " But no one stays ; 

 or only the children stay — yes, the children stay. 



Under the walls of St. Paul's Cathedral is a 

 drinking-fountain of some pretensions. It is all of 

 marble and is fair and round. It is in that corner 

 where the pigeons are. They are so tame, you 

 know, that they will settle on your shoulders when 

 you bring them bread to eat. I know a curious 

 person from the country who keeps a little grain 

 or bread-crumbs in his pockets, and feeds the 

 pigeons that he meets with in his rounds. And 

 one day it chanced that, after he had fed these the 

 Pauline pensioners, he fell to leaning against the 

 rim of the marble basin, and musing as he leant. 

 Something, I suppose, in sight or sound awoke a 



