Pippa's employer, the owner of the factory. But no, Ottima is not behaving well to the old man ; so Pippa will be Phene, the bride, who at noon that day will marry the great sculptor, Jules. Or, there is Luigi's devoted mother ; Pippa has seen her with her son, has marked their tenderness and love ; and the love of a mother for her only son is the highest form, she thinks, of human love. But the love of God is above that. She would like to share in God's love. So she will bo the Bishop who has arrived in the town that day to be present at his brother's funeral. And then she ends by saying she will be just herself ; for God will love her, though she be no Bishop ; and any child can serve God by loving others. And so she sings her New Year's hymn :
{{{1}}}" All service ranks the same with God ; If now, as formerly He trod Paradise, His presence fills Our earth, each only as God wills Can work God's puppets, best and worst, Are we ; there is no last nor first."
And so humbly she decides :
{{{1}}}" I will pass by, and see their happiness, And envy none being just as great, no doubt, Useful to men, and dear to God, as they ! A pretty thing to care about So mightily, this single holiday ! " And she spends her holiday in passing up and down through town and country, singing as she goes, and all unconsciously her song changes the lives of all these people of whom she has been thinking in the morning. Ottima, and Jules, Luigi's mother, and the Bishop himself are all saved from sin, or brought to repentance, by the accident that just at the right moment Pippa passes singing. And this is one of her songs : " The year 's at the spring, And day 's at the morn ; Morning 's at seven ; The'hill-side 's dew-pearled ;
