Right Reckoning*

MARY I. MESECHRE

Grouped quietly near the window,
Some little ones, tired of play,
Were conning again the lessons
They had learned in school that day;
While indoors I, with my problem
Unsolved at the set of sun,
Heard, "Three times nothing is nothing,
And one to carry is one."

I lingered there in the twilight
And pondered my problem o'er,—
All my unavailing efforts
To make the result count four,—
But now, rebuked by the children,
I was given grace to see
I'd failed because I had reckoned
That "three times nothing" as three!

Some insignificant cipher
In the problem of daily life
Too oft we count as a factor,
Till our work with failure seems rife.
Again let us heed the children
Whose lessons are scarce begun,
And reckon nothing as nothing,
And measure our sum by one.

No matter how long we reckon
Some cipher as real to be,
The time will come in our counting
Of "three times nothing" as three,
When eyes long blind shall be opened
To the useless work we've done,
For all "times nothing is nothing,"
Since God is the only One.

*See "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 275, line 10).

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