Epilogue – The Williams House
Within a summer afternoon,
Among the blowing flowers,
Many young voices strike a tune,
With silver laughs like showers.
They sing and shout and laugh with glee
With much more fun to be.
Hark and listen to hear the sound,
Of all the little tones.
Remember times when you could bound,
O’er hills and dales and stones.
And if you are a little one,
Take time to leap and run!
There is a day to one day be,
When we are ushered in,
To unending moments of glee,
And no more times of sin.
Here, cheerful tones will rise and sing,
All praises to the King.
Remember then that all this life,
Is passing like a breath.
There is no time for any strife,
For soon there will be death.
But then if found in Christ you stand,
Your welcome will be grand!
~by Joshua A. Reynolds
The Magician’s Nephew; from Chapter 15: The End of this Story
. There were of course all sorts of colored things in the bedroom; the colored counterpane on the bed, the wallpaper, the sunlight from the window, and Mother’s pretty, pale blue dressing jacket. But the moment Digory took the Apple out of his pocket, all those things seemed to have scarcely any color at all. Every one of them, even the sunlight, looked faded and dingy. The brightness of the Apple threw strange lights on the ceiling. Nothing else was worth looking at: you couldn’t look at anything else. And the smell of the Apple of Youth was as if there was a window in the room that opened on Heaven.
. “Oh, darling, how lovely,” said Digory’s Mother.
. “You will eat it, won’t you? Please,” said Digory.
. “I don’t know what the Doctor would say,” she answered. “But really – I almost feel as if I could.”
. He peeled it and cut it up and gave it to her piece by piece.
. . .
. Next morning when the Doctor made his usual visit, Digory leaned over the banisters to listen. He heard the Doctor come out with Aunt Letty and say:
. “Miss Ketterley, this is the most extraordinary case I have known in my whole medical career. It is – it is like a miracle. I wouldn’t tell the little boy anything at present; we don’t want to raise any false hopes. But in my opinion-” then his voice became too low to hear.
. . .
. About a week after this it was quite certain that Digory’s Mother was getting better. About a fortnight later she was able to sit out in the garden. And a month later that whole house had become a different place. Aunt Letty did everything that Mother liked; windows were opened, frowsy curtains were drawn back to brighten up the rooms, there were new flowers everywhere, and nicer things to eat, and the old piano was tuned and Mother took up her singing again, and had such games with Digory and Polly that Aunt Letty would say “I declare, Mabel, you’re the biggest baby of the three.”
~By C.S. Lewis
from Five Children and It
My Lamb, you are so very small,
You have not learned to read at all;
Yet never a printed book withstands
The urgence of your dimpled hands.
So, though this book is for yourself,
Let mother keep it on the shelf
Till you can read. O days that pass,
That day will come too soon, alas!
~By E. Nesbit
Joshua Reynolds on Conservative Cornerstones – Author of Children’s Books, Young Adult, Historical Fiction / Family Stories – Finding Conservative Thought in Olde Books. Check out my Authoring Conservatism Post. Look up my two books, The Williams House and Treasure on the Southern Moor in my bookstore!
