He rocked them gently to and fro.
‘No, no, my love, you have not died;
Nor you, my little fellow; no.’
“Long in his arms he strained his dead,
And crooned an antique lullaby;
Then laid them on the lowly bed,
And broke down with a doleful cry.”
Then his own heart broke, at last, and he, too, was dead.
“Straightway he stood at heaven’s gate