All That Matters

by EDGAR A. GUEST
With Pictures by W. T. BENDA M. L. BOWER F. X. LEYENDECKER F. C. YOHN H. C. PITZ ROBERT E. JOHNSTON HARVEY EMRICH PRUETT CARTER
THE REILLY & LEE CO. Chicago
Printed in the United States of America Copyright, 1922 by The Reilly & Lee Co. All Rights Reserved Illustrations Copyrighted, 1920, 1921, 1922 by The International Magazine Company and reproduced by special arrangement with the Cosmopolitan Magazine Second Printing—August, 1922 Third Printing—October, 1922 All That Matters
All That Matters From a painting by Frank X. Leyendecker.
All That Matters Is Dedicated To My Wife Who Is All To Me E. A. G.

When all that matters shall be written down And the long record of our years is told, Where sham, like flesh, must perish and grow cold; When the tomb closes on our fair renown And priest and layman, sage and motleyed clown Must quit the places which they dearly hold, What to our credit shall we find enscrolled? And what shall be the jewels of our crown? I fancy we shall hear to our surprise Some little deeds of kindness, long forgot, Telling our glory, and the brave and wise Deeds which we boasted often, mentioned not. God gave us life not just to buy and sell, And all that matters is to live it well.

Until she died we never knew The beauty of our faith in God. We'd seen the summer roses nod And wither as the tempests blew, Through many a spring we'd lived to see The buds returning to the tree.
We had not felt the touch of woe; What cares had come, had lightly flown; Our burdens we had borne alone— The need of God we did not know. It seemed sufficient through the days To think and act in worldly ways.
And then she closed her eyes in sleep; She left us for a little while; No more our lives would know her smile. And oh, the hurt of it went deep! It seemed to us that we must fall Before the anguish of it all.