I shall hear their shout of joy when each
stone is found; I shall join in their triumph, I shall shout among them; I
shall see the crown grow." So great was my longing as I looked at the
crown, I thought a faint light fell from my forehead also.
God said, "Do you not hear the singing in the gardens?"
I said, "No, I hear nothing; I see only the crown." And I was dumb with
longing; I forgot all the flowers of the lower Heaven and the singing
there. And I ran forward, and threw my mantle on the earth and bent to
seize one of the mighty tools which lay there. I could not lift it from
the earth.
God said, "Where hast THOU earned the strength to raise it? Take up thy
mantle."
And I took up my mantle and followed where God called me; but I looked
back, and I saw the crown burning, my crown that I had loved.
Higher and higher we climbed, and the air grew thinner. Not a tree or
plant was on the bare rocks, and the stillness was unbroken. My breath
came hard and quick, and the blood crept within my finger-tips. I said to
God, "Is this Heaven?"
God said, "Yes; it is the highest."
And still we climbed. I said to God, "I cannot breathe so high."
God said, "Because the air is pure?"
And my head grew dizzy, and as I climbed the blood burst from my finger-
tips.
Then we came out upon a lonely mountain-top.
No living being moved there; but far off on a solitary peak I saw a lonely
figure standing. Whether it were man or woman I could not tell; for partly
it seemed the figure of a woman, but its limbs were the mighty limbs of a
man.
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