THE HAPPINESS OF POVERTY
One wonders where "The Shoes of Happiness" may be found, and the answer is forthcoming in the first of "Six Stories," when he finds that the Sultan Mahmoud is near unto death, and that there is just one thing that will make him well, and that is that he may wear the shoes of a perfectly happy man:
"For only by this can you break the ban:
You must wear the shoes of a happy man."
The Shoes of Happiness.
The Vizier was sent to find these shoes or lose his own head:
"Go forth, Vizier, when the dawn is red,
And bring me the shoes, or send instead,
By the hand of this trusted slave, your head!"
The Shoes of Happiness.
He first found a crowd of idle rich going forth for a day's outing among the fields and flowers, a "swarm of the folk of high degree," and thought to find the shoes here, but, alas! he found that
"In each glad heart was a wistful cry;
Behind each joy was a secret sigh."
The Shoes of Happiness.
He turned from the rich and sought the homes of the poor, and the
Father in the home of the poor said unto him:
"Ah, Vizier,
I have seven sweet joys, but I have one fear:
The dread of to-morrow ever is here!"
The Shoes of Happiness.
A Poet was found weaving a song of happiness, and the Vizier thought that surely here would he find the man with the "happy shoes," but the Poet cried: