Fabula Fides (Part II. The Price of a Smile)

And so, in th'rainy morn of Christmas day
this Jack went out to walk, wasting away
his life in dire melancholy, poor brute!
His eyes, so sad: like a flutist's minuet.

O, how pathetic all did seem. Alone...
Our Jack, so poor a man I have not known.
While all men 'round him celebrating were,
this man, to cry in loneliness preferred.

And in this Christmas day, he looked around
How happiness and love and joy abound!
For misery is naught when you're with friends.
But long ago, this man's dreams met their end.

And roaming thus he passed a gorgeous house,
where men and women played and laughed so loud.
The children, too, their novel toys they shared-
but Jack, so apathetically heard.

"But wherefore do these candles shine in dark?
And why do luckless men deal their remark?,"
Thought Jack, but soon an answer he would find.
A child would soon convert his devious mind.

Whence walking more, he crossed the ghetto roads,
and the same spirit there he found in lots.
He thought that money buys all luxuries,
but what about the hearken melodies?

A little girl who this joy could not share,
with palest skin, and eyes full of despair,
of cold did tremble, lo! but Jack knew not
what he could do, to avoid this girl to rot.

And so, his heart beat as hard as ever,
with immense heat and a lovely ardor.
His first act of generosity done:
he gave his coat away, to a girl unknown.

The girl, for once felt warm in Christmas day:
her cheeks such happiness conveyed.
And then she approached our friend, her idol, Jack,
embraced him thence and made his teeth show back.

His face illuminated by this smile,
enlightened, yea, if even for a while.
And thus, decided he, to help the poor,
to see their faces laugh and smile, so pure.

The little fortune that he had he gave
for those who lived in poverty as slaves.
This act by all the Londoners was known.
His admirable deed gained him the town.

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The second part of Fabula Fides relates how Jack, formerly a cold and unloving man, found happiness by sharing his wealth (which he lacked in the first place.) Part 3, soon to come, relates the end of the story.