Jützi Schultheiss
So spake the Sister, saying "Pray
That Christ forgive their sins to-day!"
But I looked still before me where
The unseemly blows and clamour were,
And cold my heart grew, stiff and cold.
For I had prayed so much of old,
So vainly for these knights-at-arms,
Who filled the country with alarms—
Too often had I prayed in vain,
Too often put myself in pain
For these irreverent, brawling, rough,
And godless knights—I had prayed enough!
"Let God," I cried, "do all He please;
I pray no more for such as these."
Then swift I turned and fled, as though
I fled from sin, and strife, and woe.
Who fled from God, and from His grace.
Nor stayed I till I reached the place
Where I had prayed an hour ago.
1 stood again beneath the shade
The flowering apple-orchard made;
The grass was still as tall and green,
As fresh as ever it had been.
I heard the little rabbits rush
As swiftly through the wood; the thrush
Was singing still the self-same song.
Yet something there was changed and wrong.
Or through the grass or through my heart
Some deadly thing had passed athwart.
And left behind a blighting track;
For the old peace comes never back.
The gift of God was mine; I lost
For aye the gift of Pentecost,
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