Explore "Master and Boy" by George MacDonald on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"WHO is this little one lying,"
Said Time, "at my garden-gate, / Moaning and sobbing and crying, / Out in the cold so late?"
"They lurked until we came near, / Master and I," the child said, / "Then caught me, with 'Welcome, New-year!
Happy Year! Golden-head!'
"See Christmas-day, my Master, / On the meadow a mile away!
Father Time, make me run faster!
I'm the Shadow of Christmas-day!"
"Run, my child; still he's in sight!
Only look well to his track; / Little Shadow, run like the light, / He misses you at his back!"
Old Time sat down in the sun / On a grave-stone -- his legs were numb: / "When the boy to his master has run,"
He said, "Heaven's New Year is come! "