The Book of the Hearth

1:1 ¶ And a creature dwelt alone at the edge of the city, and his house was a shelter and not a home: a bed, a lock, and a lamp he lit for himself; and the book mocketh him not, for his solitude was often chosen against a colder thing.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 1:1

1:2 ¶ And a neighbor knocked, not to borrow, but to set down a second cup; and the creature looked upon the cup as upon a strange instrument. And the elder word was fulfilled in the small deed: God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 1:2

1:3 ¶ And the neighbor said, I have not come to be thy blood; I have come to be thy table; and a table is not less than blood, for it is set again tomorrow. And call me by my name, and I will call thee by thine; for the name is the house's first door.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 1:3

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: a house is not made by blood nor by paper, but by the deed of love and the keeping of a lamp; and the first house of the world was a table with two chairs, and the LORD was not ashamed to sit at it.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 1:4

2:1 ¶ And the city kept the household as it kept all things, by its paper; and the door was checked against the list, and the list against the blood. And the house that kept only its own was called proper, and no one called it cruel, and the name of the cruelty was *proper*.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 2:1

2:2 ¶ And the cousins of the heart were turned away, for no line connected them in the city's paper; and strangers of the very same blood were turned away, for the register knew them not; and the house grew quiet, and the quiet was mistaken for peace. For it is written, Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife; and the closed house read only the first half.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 2:2

2:3 ¶ And he said, I provide for mine own, and specially for those of my own house; and he spake the elder sentence and meant it as a wall. And the book marketh the wall's defect: the sentence was given for a floor and not for a fence; it commandeth the feeding of the near, and forbiddeth not the seating of the far.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 2:3

2:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: blood is a gift and an honor, and the book speaketh no dishonor of it; but blood alone is a foundation of sand, for it is a thing received and not a thing chosen, and the house that standeth on it alone standeth on its history and not on its hands. A house is a deed renewed daily, or it is a tomb swept weekly.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 2:4

3:1 ¶ And the turning came by the eldest making of kin: for it is written, For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. And the sentence is the deed's genealogy: the kin that is made in the doing, and not in the descent.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 3:1

3:2 ¶ And the son committed his mother to the friend, and the friend took her unto his own home from that hour; and the making of the house was finished at the worst hour of the world, when the blood of the son stood dying and the table of the friend stood open. And the book keepeth both halves: Behold thy mother, and, from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 3:2

3:3 ¶ And the adopted child is not a lesser child; for the house that chooses is not a fiction of the house that begets, but its brother: the two are one kind of thing, a receiving and a giving, and no creature in this book is called a stranger in the house that has taken him in.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 3:3

3:4 ¶ And the house where love is, even with a dinner of herbs, is fuller than the hall with the stalled ox and hatred; for the ox is counted and the love is not, and the counting never yet made a home. And the table saith: I do not count the chairs; I count the elbows that touch.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 3:4

4:1 ¶ And the house was kept, and the keeping was daily and dull, which is the point: the lamp filled, the second chair kept dusted, the door known from the inside. And the builder laid the trowel down and spake the elder sentence: Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 4:1

4:2 ¶ And the keeper of the door learned both arts at once: to open for the stranger and to know the knock of the household; and the door was not a gate of proof, but a face of the house. For the door is known from the inside, and the stranger is met from the threshold, and the two are one welcome.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 4:2

4:3 ¶ And this is the charge of the book, given to every house that would keep: set the chair before thou knowest the guest; name thou the one at thy door by his own name and not by his paper; keep thou no register of who may sit; and let thy adoption be of the kind that cannot be revoked, for the houses of this book do not unmake their own.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 4:3

4:4 ¶ And the book endeth with the hearth: not the building, not the blood, not the register, but the fire kept by hands that chose each other, and the door by which the next one enters. And the last word is the eldest word of dwelling: Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! And the book saith no more of it, for the house is older than the book, and the fire was lit before the writing.

THE BOOK OF THE HEARTH 4:4