The Books.
Reading edition
I.
Close the book and put it by! What it held of song and sigh, What it held of smile and tear Laughs and sorrows through the year! Pages dark and pages fair Each to each are wedded there, And no sage e'er understood What was evil, what was good!
II.
Close the life and put it by! It was made of song and sigh, It was made of smiles and tears And the struggles of the years! Days of dark and days of fair Closely came and blended there, And but He who judges could Know the evil and the good!
Every day and hour from which Love witholds her smiles and hides her happy face is a desert path in the rose-fields of this life. Only he who welcomes the laughing goddess to his heart and holds her dear hands close with an abiding faith, receives that holy happiness discerning souls call a success worth having.