When the Lord should enter the lowly door--
The knock, the call, the latch pulled up,
The lighted face, the offered cup.
He would wash the feet where the spikes had been;
He would kiss the hands where the nails went in;
And then at last he would sit with him
And break the bread as the day grew dim."

The Shoes of Happiness.

But the Master did not come. Instead came a beggar and the cobbler gave
him shoes; instead came an old crone with a heavy load of faggots. He
gave her a lift with her load and some of the food that he had prepared
for the Christ when he should come. Finally a little child came, crying
along the streets, lost. He pitied the child and left his shop to take
it to its mother; such was his great heart of love. He hurried back
that he might not miss the Great Guest when he came. But the Great
Guest did not come. As the evening came and the shadows were falling
through the window of his shop, more and more the truth, with all
its weight of sadness, bore in upon him, that the dream was not to come
true; that he had made a mistake; that Christ was not to come to his
humble shop. His heart was broken and he cried out in his
disappointment:

"Why is it, Lord, that your feet delay?
Did you forget that this was the day?"

The Shoes of Happiness.

Then what sweeter scene in all the lines of the poetry of the world