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This is to tell of our little Mistress Merciless, who for a season
abided with us, but is now and forever gone from us unto the far-off
land of Ever-Plaisance. The tale is soon told; for it were not seemly
to speak all the things that are in one’s heart when one hath to say
of a much-beloved child, whose life here hath been shortened so that,
in God’s wisdom and kindness, her life shall be longer in that garden
that bloometh far away.

You shall know that all did call her Mistress Merciless; but her
mercilessness was of a sweet, persuasive kind: for with the beauty of
her face and the music of her voice and the exceeding sweetness of her
virtues was she wont to slay all hearts; and this she did unwittingly,
for she was a little child. And so it was in love that we did call her
Mistress Merciless, just as it was in love that she did lord it over
all our hearts.

Upon a time walked she in a full fair garden, and there went with her
an handmaiden that we did call in merry wise the Queen of Sheba; for
this handmaiden was in sooth no queen at all, but a sorry and
ill-favored wench; but she was assotted upon our little Mistress
Merciless and served her diligently, and for that good reason was
vastly beholden of us all. Yet, in a jest, we called her the Queen of
Sheba; and I make a venture that she looked exceeding fair in the eyes
of our little Mistress Merciless: for the eyes of children look not
upon the faces but into the hearts and souls of others. Whilst these
two walked in the full fair garden at that time they came presently
unto an arbor wherein there was a rustic seat, which was called the
Siege of Restfulness; and hereupon sate a little sick boy that, from
his birth, had been lame, so that he could not play and make merry
with other children, but was wont to come every day into this full
fair garden and content himself with the companionship of the flowers.
And, though he was a little lame boy, he never trod upon those
flowers; and even had he done so, methinks the pressure of those
crippled feet had been a caress, for the little lame boy was filled
with the spirit of love and tenderness. As the tiniest, whitest,
shrinking flower exhaleth the most precious perfume, so in and from
this little lame boy’s life there came a grace that was hallowing in
its beauty.

Since they never before had seen him, they asked him his name; and he
answered them that of those at home he was called Master Sweetheart, a
name he could not understand: for surely, being a cripple, he must be
a very sorry sweetheart; yet, that he was a sweetheart unto his mother
at least he had no doubt, for she did love to hold him in her lap and
call him by that name; and many times when she did so he saw that
tears were in her eyes,–a proof, she told him when he asked, that
Master Sweetheart was her sweetheart before all others upon earth.

It befell that our little Mistress Merciless and Master Sweetheart
became fast friends, and the Queen of Sheba was handmaiden to them
both; for the simple, loyal creature had not a mind above the artless
prattle of childhood, and the strange allegory of the lame boy’s
speech filled her with awe, even as the innocent lisping of our little
Mistress Merciless delighted her heart and came within the
comprehension of her limited understanding. So each day, when it was
fair, these three came into the full fair garden, and rambled there
together; and when they were weary they entered into the arbor and
sate together upon the Siege of Restfulness. Wit ye well there was not
a flower or a tree or a shrub or a bird in all that full fair garden
which they did not know and love, and in very sooth every flower and
tree and shrub and bird therein did know and love them.