s: Still seek the gleaming walls of paradise.


s: For soon the rocks will strand the ship,


s: Her heart seems like seems like some frozen thing--


s: But soon a voice shouts back the words--


s: A strong hand grasps the trembling girl,


s: "Stay, stay," she cries with whitened face


s: The maiden stood with outstretched hands,


s: "Oh, God, the heart that knows your love


s: So great that the world, in its careless way,


s: Remembered thy beauty for more than a day.


s: In the name of the truth from thy brow is torn


s: The crown of redemption thou long hast worn,


s: And into the valley of sin thou art hurled


s: To be trampled anew by the feet of the world.


s: That hangs in the palace on Italy's shore;


s: The tear-stained eyes where the shadow lies,


s: Like a darksome cloud in the summer skies,


s: And the far-famed picture that hangs on the wall


s: Where the sunlight of day drowns the shadows of night;


s: And the great warm sun with his golden rays


s: But the tale of thy woes is a shadow there


s: That fills with its horror the perfumed air.


s: By day and by night in the palace there,


s: Thy picture has hung with its face so fair;


s: With its sad, sweet grace, like some voiceless star,


s: Till the hears that shuddered before thy sin


s: Recalled not the shadow that lay within,


s: The hopeless grief on the child-like face.


s: Shone fair on thy brow in the morning bright;


s: And the glittering noon with its rays of gold


s: With the matchless beauty that Guido had drawn;


s: And fair was the face in the noon of gold,


s: Touched with a glory that never grew old.


s: Lay the burning sunset of Italy's skies;


s: And the beautiful face with its voiceless woe


s: Grew fair as a saint's in the crimson glow.


s: No wonder the poets grew wild at the sight,


s: And sung of thy beauty with mad delight,


s: Till the fame of the picture spread over the land,


s: Is scarcely more famed than the child-like head


s: O beautiful woman, the world with its scorn


s: Will mock at the glory thou long hast worn,


s: But the romance that clings to the wondrous face


s: Will fall on our hearts with a softened grace,


s: And the fair young sinner on Italy's shore


s: Of the azure skies, when the sun is down,


s: Glad'ning the earth as they glide along,


s: Catching the sunbeams, oh, wee dimpled child,


s: Gleefully laughing because they are bright;


s: Ne'er can our fingers imprison the light.


s: Beautiful sunshine, oh! fair is the light


s: Falling on earth from the heavens above;


s: Beautiful childhood, oh! glad is the sight


s: Filling the world with its measure of love.


s: Playing with sunbeams, oh, all of us, pet,


s: Toy with the treasures, so shining and bright;


s: Catching the sunshine we never may hold,


s: Sunbeams that glitter and sparkle and shine--


s: Gilding the wings of each fleet-footed day


s: Playing with sunbeams, oh! all of us, pet,


s: Long for the treasures so shining and glad;


s: Finding too late that they slip from our hands,


s: Leaving us heart-sick and weary and sad.


s: Learning the lessons we never will heed--


s: Life is so full of the things that we crave;


s: Catching the sunshine oh, darling, each heart


s: Longs for the sunbeams till it reaches the grave.


s: Where brothers fought with blinded eyes,


s: The dark brown eyes, whose loving glance


s: Yet still the sunbeams shine through all


s: The dark clouds fall, yet God's sweet light


s: Oh! faint heart, with thy clinging grief,


s: Gleaming folds of read and gold linger in the western sky;


s: Fleecy clouds of purest tint, mingle with the purple dye.


s: Faintly to the dreamy mind comes the sound of earthly life;


s: Far beyond the shining banks, cometh rest from worldly strife.


s: Through the sunset's misty veil, now we look with longing eyes,


s: To behold more beauteous sight than the evening's glor'ous skies.


s: Slowly now the red banks part, showing what is hidden there;


s: Glimpses of a life beyond come to each faint, weary heart,


s: Though the life be weary spent, evening brings the glory near;


s: And beyond the sunset's glow, grand the hills of God appear.


s: Where is the bard, O river grand and old,


s: That has thy praises sung, thy beauties told,


s: That lingers in thy deep and flowing tide?


s: And where the echoing measures low and sweet


s: That should thine own faint rippling songs repeat?


s: Watch o'er thy restless wandering to the sea;


s: The rosy morn awakes thee from thy sleep;


s: Along thy dusky waves her glances creep,


s: And o'er the weird dark shadows of the night


s: She spreads her sunny robes of morning light.


s: The yellow noon comes too, with fiery eyes,


s: Thy waters run in waves of rippling gold,


s: Are not so grand as thee, nor yet so fair.


s: Amid the mists that fill the evening air


s: The sun droops low his golden head and dies,


s: Yet in thy depths his last glance ling'ring lies


s: Of crimson stains and gleams of molten gold


s: It changes, like great waves of fire rolled


s: Thy dark waves glide; and shadows long and wide


s: Pale stars that wander through the trackless skies


s: All night, glance in thy depths with glowing eyes,


s: And like a stream of silver flecked with gold


s: From snow-bound shores thy dark waves loosened run


s: And lo! from North and South, from East and West,


s: Companions come to aid thee in thy quest.


s: Along thy shores great cities stately stand,


s: Sprung up beneath thy kindly welcoming hand;


s: Proud commerce lives upon thy sweeping tide


s: What daring hand can quell thy proud unrest?


s: What human pen can paint thee as thou art,


s: The loved, the pride of every free-born heart?


s: Thou symbol of a nation strong and free,


s: Whose throne is on the land and on the sea!


s: What power is thine, what might is unto thee!


s: Though men shall die, thy waters still will be.


s: Where the beautiful night like a shadow lies,


s: To wake no more in the star-crowned night.


s: Steeling her heart--but her dream was in vain


s: For the bright young life into Eternity hurled


s: To whisper a prayer to the Throne of Light,


s: For the beautiful woman whose head lies low,


s: Crushed 'neath the weight of its crown of woe.


s: Like some wild rose in a mountain glade;


s: But the storms have won, and the blossom lies


s: There's a beautiful lake where the sun lies low,


s: And the skies are warm with their summer glow;


s: Where the winds are warm and the waves are free,


s: As the flowers at night, when the day is done.


s: You may sing of your silvery seas by night


s: When the moon looks down with a dreamy light;


s: And the stars shine out in the skies above


s: Like the warm sweet gaze of the eyes of love;


s: And the beauty it wears will never grow old;


s: The trees bend down in the sun's warm glow


s: Till their branches meet in the waves below,


s: Are mirrored anew where the sunlight lies.


s: 'Neath the matchless glow of the summer sky;


s: And I love to dream that these waves of light


s: Are as far from my reach as the clouds above.


s: The cloudlets of Heaven are mirrored there


s: By the beautiful light of this summer's day.


s: Oh, I love to dream when this life is o'er


s: We shall moor our boats near the golden shore;


s: And our sorrows shall drift from us far away


s: As the leaves that float in their idle play,


s: When the night is over and life is done.


s: Beyond yon dim old mountain's shadowy height,


s: The restless sun droops low his grand old face;


s: While downward sweeps the trembling veil of night,


s: To hide the earth; the frost king's filmy lace


s: Rests on the mountain's hoary snow-crowned head,


s: And adds to it a softened grace; the light


s: Of birds across the vast and silent plains


s: Awakes the echoes of the sleeping earth;


s: Of all the summer beauty naught remains,


s: There come no tidings of the spring's glad birth.


s: The birds in wandering do take their way;


s: Ah, whither is their strange and trackless flight


s: Into the clouds that seek to veil the sun


s: They seem to float on strange bright wings of fire;


s: Beyond the shades that tell us day is done


s: They soar on spirit wings that never tire.


s: Ah, strange, strange mysteries indeed are these;


s: To watch the sunlight fade and die away,


s: To hear the whispering of the dark pine trees,


s: To see the deepening shadows 'round us play,


s: And then to feel that all that 'round us lies


s: Is e'en beyond the knowledge of the soul.


s: We seek to grasp the truth, it quickly flies


s: The spheres that light the way to heaven's shore,


s: And soon their lights will brighten all the sky;


s: And yet we dare not read their mystic lore


s: They wander through the darkness all the night,


s: The stars' dim course, the birds' lone dreamy flight,


s: Will ever fill our souls with doubt and fear.


s: We walk upon life's unknown shadowy shore


s: With wandering steps, while through the heavens clear


s: Sweet summer queen, with trailing robe of green,


s: What spell has thou to bind the heart to thee?


s: Thy throne is built upon the sun-lit sea,


s: Where break the waves in clouds of silver sheen


s: And oft at dawn like some resplendent queen,


s: But now farewell to all thy joys serene;


s: The autumn comes with swift-winged, silent flight,


s: And he will woo thee with his fiery breath;


s: In crimson robes and hues of flashing gold


s: He'll clothe thee, and thy beauty in the night


s: Will take a richer glow.  But wintry death


s: That thou wilt know, though dead and gone,


s: The great White Throne lies just beyond,


s: The earth is strewn with star-gemmed flowers


s: Oh, what is so pure as the glad summer rain,


s: That falls on the grass where the sunlight has lain?


s: And what is so fair as the flowers that lie


s: All bathed in the tears of the soft summer sky?


s: The blue of the heavens is dimmed by the rain


s: That wears away sorrow and washes out pain;


s: But we know that the flowers we cherish would die


s: Were it not for the tears of the cloud-laden sky.


s: The rose is the sweeter when kissed by the rain,


s: And hearts are the dearer where sorrow has lain;


s: The sky is the fairer that rain-clouds have swept,


s: And no eyes are so bright as the eyes that have wept.


s: Oh, they are so happy, these flowers that die,


s: They laugh in the sunshine, oh, why cannot I?


s: They droop in the shadow, they smile in the sun,


s: Yet they die in the winter when summer is done.


s: The lily is lovely, and fragrant her breath,


s: But the beauty she wears is the emblem of death;


s: The rain is so fair as it falls on the flowers,


s: But the clouds are the shadows of sunnier hours.


s: Why laugh in the sunshine, why smile in the rain?


s: The world is a shadow and life is a pain;


s: Why live in the summer, why dream in the sun,


s: To die in the winter, when summer is done?


s: Oh, there is the truth that each life underlies,


s: That baffles the poets and sages so wise;


s: Ah! there is the bitter that lies in the sweet


s: As we gather the roses that bloom at our feet.


s: Oh, flowers forgive me, I'm willful to-day,


s: Oh, take back the lesson you gave me I pray;


s: For I slept in the sunshine, I woke in the rain


s: And it banished forever my sorrow and pain.


s: Like autumn leaves sometimes they fall--


s: The wee sweet flowers we loved the best,


s: But the song that it sings is as sad to-day


s: But the lesson they tell to the hearts of men


s: The star-crowned night in her sable plumes


s: And she trails her robes in the dying fires


s: And the beautiful star with its golden light


s: O sun-crowned hills in the purple light.


s: Dark river that flows at my longing feet,


s: But the song that you sing brings me thoughts to-night


s: And my soul grows sad as I think of the day--


s: When the sun went down in a glory of gold


s: nobly sacrificed his own life for others, and in remembrance of


s: those unknown to fame or friends who have silently followed in


s: For the winds sweep by with a mournful sigh,


s: He is dead--and the strong, brave life that he gave


s: Yet he died, Christ-like, in a labor of love,


s: And why should we sorrow--the crown is his


s: Though he died when his labor was just begun,


s: And the moans of the dying are heard in the night


s: And the rain beats down with a mournful sound


s: Yet high in the heavens a Hand is stretched,


s: And the lives gone out in the darkness below


s: Love joins them both in a flood of tears,


s: The hand that was dyed in a brother's blood


s: And the hearts that in life were driven apart,


s: Then why should we sorrow--our God is love,


s: Bright hope still shines like a star of night


s: Once more the clouds enwrapped the earth,


s: She stood by my side with a queenly air,


s: Her face it was young and proud and fair;


s: It crimsoned her face with a deeper glow;


s: The sunlight drooped in her eyes of fire


s: And quickened my heart to a wild desire;


s: I envied the flowers that gleamed in her hair.


s: Had knelt at her feet in the days of yore;


s: She had scorned them all with a careless grace


s: And a woman's scorn on her beautiful face.


s: Yet now in the summer I knelt at her feet,


s: And dreamed a dream that was fair and sweet.


s: The roses drooped in her gold-brown hair,


s: And quivered and glowed in the sun-lit air;


s: And dazzled my eyes with their fitful glow.


s: And love was so sweet when the day was done!


s: And deepened their glow to a warmer brown.


s: With her sun-lit eyes and her gleaming hair;


s: I drank in her beauty as men drink wine,--


s: The touch of her hand was madness to me;


s: Oh, my love was as great as love could be!


s: I kissed the roses that drooped in her hair,


s: I pressed the dews from her lips so fair;


s: And what did we care that the sun was low,


s: And the hills were bright with the sunset glow?


s: The purple that glowed in the skies above,


s: One perfumed breath from her lips so fair,


s: I gathered the roses that lay at her feet,


s: And fastened them in, with a lover's prayer,


s: Where she loved them best, in her silken hair;


s: For the things she loved were as dear to me


s: As the shining stars to the watching sea.


s: Where we parted that night in the summer glow


s: And the hanging clouds were steeped in red,


s: That rivaled the gold of her sun-crowned head.


s: With the beautiful colors floating past,


s: And the soft warm light in her velvety eyes,


s: Reflecting the glow of the sun-kissed skies.


s: I stood on the shore when the moon hung low


s: And shone on the clouds like the sun on snow;


s: I stood alone where the dark reeds quiver,


s: And the lilies pale in the night-winds shiver.


s: I dreamed of my love that was fair as the day,


s: Oh, the beautiful love that would last for aye!


s: Is it the gleam of the lilies tall and fair,


s: By the constant wash of the waves set free?


s: Oh, see! how strange it looks and how white.


s: How it glistens and gleams in the shining light!


s: It is nearing the shore--it is coming to me!


s: My God! that my eyes could be blind to-night


s: To shut out forever that dreadful sight!


s: That the woman I loved is thus coming to me?


s: That bright thing drifting down with the tide,


s: Is all that is left of my beautiful bride!


s: Oh, pitiless moon with your pale cold light,


s: Grow dark for one instant and shut out that sight,


s: Till my eyes, grown dim with the tears unshed


s: Shall look no more on the face of my dead.


s: Where I last saw the roses gleaming there.


s: The cold winds shiver and moan in the night


s: As they sweep 'round her brow in the shining light.


s: Where the night-winds shiver and creep and moan,


s: That I hate the things that are living and glad?


s: Fear not, my love, you shall welcome be,


s: The dead and the living shall lie to-night.


s: 'Neath the pitiless waves of that river bright.


s: We have lived together, together we die;


s: Her face is so white--is it a woman I see,


s: Her hand is so near--it touches my own--


s: My God! it is gone--I am standing alone.


s: Oh, why did I love when the sun was high,


s: And the clouds lay piled in the glittering sky!


s: And the heavens were red with the blood-red glow!


s: Oh, beautiful demon, that men call love,


s: 'T were better that men should never be born


s: 'T were better that women should stand afar,


s: And worship in vain some cold, proud star;


s: Than drink in thy beauty with passionate breath


s: That brings to them only sorrow and death.


s: Mr. Harte died suddenly at Camberley, England, May 6, 1902.


s: Have you heard the story that gossips tell


s: When the rebels rode through his native town;


s: From a stubborn Meade and a barren field.


s: Where, in the shade of his peaceful vine,


s: And felt their breath with incense sweet;


s: The old farm gable, he thought it turned


s: The milk that fell like a babbling flood


s: Were strange to a practical man like Burns,


s: Than one of his calm-eyed, long-tailed kine,--


s: The turkeys screamed with might and main,


s: With strange shells bursting in each nest.


s: Was a bright blue coat, with a rolling collar,


s: And large gilt buttons,--size of a dollar,--


s: With tails that the country-folk called "swaller."


s: He wore a broad-brimmed, bell-crowned hat,


s: Since old John Burns was a country beau,


s: And striplings, downy of lip and chin,--


s: Clerks that the Home Guard mustered in,--


s: Glanced, as they passed, at the hat he wore,


s: And hailed him, from out their youthful lore,


s: "How are you, White Hat?"  "Put her through!"


s: "Your head's level!" and "Bully for you!"


s: Called him "Daddy,"--begged he'd disclose


s: The name of the tailor who made his clothes,


s: While Burns, unmindful of jeer and scoff,


s: With his long brown rifle and bell-crown hat,


s: And the swallow-tails they were laughing at.


s: Which clothes all courage their voices checked;


s: And something the wildest could understand


s: Spake in the old man's strong right hand,


s: And his corded throat, and the lurking frown


s: Of his eyebrows under his old bell-crown;


s: Until, as they gazed, there crept an awe


s: Through the ranks in whispers, and some men saw,


s: In the antique vestments and long white hair,


s: That the gleam of his old white hat afar,


s: Like the crested plume of the brave Navarre,


s: So raged the battle.  You know the rest:


s: How the rebels, beaten and backward pressed,


s: And then went back to his bees and cows.


s: In fighting the battle, the question's whether


s: You'll show a hat that's white, or a feather!


s: Smooth-faced boys, and cries like these,--


s: corporal."--Report of the Battle of Malvern Hill.


s: Ere your heritage be wasted," said the quick alarming drum.


s: You must do the sum to prove it," said the Yankee answering drum.


s: Better there in death united, than in life a recreant.--Come!"


s: The same red blood that dyes your fields


s: How passed the night through thy long waking?"


s: "No sight? no sound?"  "No; nothing save


s: "A star?  There's nothing strange in that."


s: "The young, the brave, the good and wise,


s: This is the reed the dead musician dropped,


s: With tuneful magic in its sheath still hidden;


s: The prompt allegro of its music stopped,


s: But who shall finish the unfinished strain,


s: Or wake the instrument to awe and wonder,


s: And bid the slender barrel breathe again,


s: His pen! what humbler memories cling about


s: Its golden curves! what shapes and laughing graces


s: Slipped from its point, when his full heart went out


s: The truth, half jesting, half in earnest flung;


s: The word of cheer, with recognition in it;


s: The note of alms, whose golden speech outrung


s: But all in vain the enchanter's wand we wave:


s: No stroke of ours recalls his magic vision:


s: Till I seemed to hear their trampling feet,


s: The bugle blast and the drum's quick beat,


s: The clatter of hoofs in the stony street,


s: Till I fell in a reverie, sad and sweet,


s: Far stretched the portico, dim and grand


s: And the streets of the city were white and bare,


s: I heard in the distance a trumpet blare,


s: And the wandering night-winds seemed to bear


s: Then I held my breath with fear and dread


s: For into the square, with a brazen tread,


s: Till it reached the Capitol square, and wheeled,


s: And there in the moonlight stood revealed


s: A well-known form that in State and field


s: Whose face was turned to the sleeping camp,


s: That showed no flicker, nor waning lamp,


s: And there came the nameless dead,--the men


s: Came the dusky martyrs of Pillow's fight,


s: With limbs enfranchised and bearing bright;


s: I thought--perhaps 'twas the pale moonlight--


s: And so all night marched the nation's dead,


s: With never an arch save the vaulted sky;


s: On the distant graves--for love could buy


s: So all night long swept the strange array,


s: Till a blue cap waved in the length'ning line,


s: Had come; and I spake--and lo! that sign


s: There is peace in the swamp where the Copperhead sleeps,


s: Where the waters are stagnant, the white vapor creeps,


s: Where the musk of Magnolia hangs thick in the air,


s: And the lilies' phylacteries broaden in prayer.


s: There is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is death,


s: Though the mist is miasma, the upas-tree's breath,


s: Though no echo awakes to the cooing of doves,--


s: There is peace: yes, the peace that the Copperhead loves.


s: Go seek him: he coils in the ooze and the drip,


s: Like a thong idly flung from the slave-driver's whip;


s: But beware the false footstep,--the stumble that brings


s: A deadlier lash than the overseer swings.


s: Never arrow so true, never bullet so dread,


s: As the straight steady stroke of that hammer-shaped head;


s: Whether slave or proud planter, who braves that dull crest,


s: Woe to him who shall trouble the Copperhead's rest!


s: Then why waste your labors, brave hearts and strong men,


s: In tracking a trail to the Copperhead's den?


s: Lay your axe to the cypress, hew open the shade


s: To the free sky and sunshine Jehovah has made;


s: Let the breeze of the North sweep the vapors away,


s: Till the stagnant lake ripples, the freed waters play;


s: And then to your heel can you righteously doom


s: The Copperhead born of its shadow and gloom!


s: Yet, mingling with these sounds of strife,


s: "Give thanks, O brothers!" said the voice,


s: But, mingling with these sounds of strife,


s: Well, you see, the fact is, Colonel, I don't know as I can come:


s: For the farm is not half planted, and there's work to do at home;


s: And then, for an old man like me, it's not exactly right,


s: This kind o' playing soldier with no enemy in sight.


s: "The Union,"--that was well enough way up to '66;


s: But this "Re-Union," maybe now it's mixed with politics?


s: No?  Well, you understand it best; but then, you see, my lad,


s: I'm deacon now, and some might think that the example's bad.


s: Hot work; eh, Colonel, wasn't it?  Ye mind that narrow front:


s: They called it the "Death-Angle"!  Well, well, my lad, we won't


s: Fight that old battle over now: I only meant to say


s: I really can't engage to come upon the twelfth of May.


s: We buried him at Gettysburg: I mind the spot; do you?


s: A little field below the hill,--it must be green this May;


s: Perhaps that's why the fields about bring him to me to-day.


s: So they want to see the old man; ah, the rascals! do they, eh?


s: Well, I've business down in Boston about the twelfth of May.


s: That burned through years of war and shame,


s: The Young World's Premier treads the slope


s: I was with Grant"--  "Nay, nay, I know,"


s: "How fell he?  With his face to the foe,


s: And thar's nary to tell that you folks yer don't know;


s: And it's "Belle, tell us, do!" and it's "Belle, is it true?"


s: And "Wot's this yer yarn of the Major and you?"


s: Till I'm sick of it all,--so I am, but I s'pose


s: Thet is nothin' to you....  Well, then, listen! yer goes!


s: It was after the fight, and around us all night


s: Thar was poppin' and shootin' a powerful sight;


s: And Pinky and Milly were hid in the shed:


s: And I ran out at daybreak, and nothin' was nigh


s: But the growlin' of cannon low down in the sky.


s: And I saw not a thing, as I ran to the spring,


s: But a splintered fence rail and a broken-down swing,


s: And a bird said "Kerchee!" as it sat on a tree,


s: As if it was lonesome, and glad to see me;


s: And I filled up my pail and was risin' to go,


s: When up comes the Major a-canterin' slow.


s: When he saw me he drew in his reins, and then threw


s: On the gate-post his bridle, and--what does he do


s: But come down where I sat; and he lifted his hat,


s: And he says--well, thar ain't any need to tell THAT;


s: 'Twas some foolishness, sure, but it 'mounted to this,


s: Thet he asked for a drink, and he wanted--a kiss.


s: Then I said (I was mad), "For the water, my lad,


s: You're too big and must stoop; for a kiss, it's as bad,--


s: You ain't near big enough."  And I turned in a huff,


s: When that Major he laid his white hand on my cuff,


s: And he says, "You're a trump!  Take my pistol, don't fear!


s: But shoot the next man that insults you, my dear."


s: Then he stooped to the pool, very quiet and cool,


s: Leavin' me with that pistol stuck there like a fool,


s: When thar flashed on my sight a quick glimmer of light


s: From the top of the little stone fence on the right,


s: And I knew 'twas a rifle, and back of it all


s: Rose the face of that bushwhacker, Cherokee Hall!


s: Then I felt in my dread that the moment the head


s: Of the Major was lifted, the Major was dead;


s: And I stood still and white, but Lord! gals, in spite


s: Of my care, that derned pistol went off in my fright!


s: Went off--true as gospil!--and, strangest of all,


s: It actooally injured that Cherokee Hall!


s: Thet's all--now, go 'long!  Yes, some folks thinks it's wrong,


s: And thar's some wants to know to what side I belong;


s: But I says, "Served him right!" and I go, all my might,


s: In love or in war, for a fair stand-up fight;


s: And as for the Major--sho! gals, don't you know


s: Thet--Lord! thar's his step in the garden below.


s: Here's the spot.  Look around you.  Above on the height


s: Lay the Hessians encamped.  By that church on the right


s: Stood the gaunt Jersey farmers.  And here ran a wall,--


s: You may dig anywhere and you'll turn up a ball.


s: Nothing more.  Grasses spring, waters run, flowers blow,


s: Pretty much as they did ninety-three years ago.


s: Nothing more, did I say?  Stay one moment: you've heard


s: Of Caldwell, the parson, who once preached the word


s: Down at Springfield?  What, no?  Come--that's bad; why, he had


s: All the Jerseys aflame!  And they gave him the name


s: Of the "rebel high priest."  He stuck in their gorge,


s: For he loved the Lord God--and he hated King George!


s: He had cause, you might say!  When the Hessians that day


s: Marched up with Knyphausen, they stopped on their way


s: At the "farms," where his wife, with a child in her arms,


s: Sat alone in the house.  How it happened none knew


s: But God--and that one of the hireling crew


s: Who fired the shot!  Enough!--there she lay,


s: And Caldwell, the chaplain, her husband, away!


s: Did he preach--did he pray?  Think of him as you stand


s: By the old church to-day,--think of him and his band


s: Of militant ploughboys!  See the smoke and the heat


s: Of that reckless advance, of that straggling retreat!


s: Keep the ghost of that wife, foully slain, in your view--


s: And what could you, what should you, what would YOU do?


s: Why, just what HE did!  They were left in the lurch


s: For the want of more wadding.  He ran to the church,


s: Broke the door, stripped the pews, and dashed out in the road


s: With his arms full of hymn-books, and threw down his load


s: At their feet!  Then above all the shouting and shots


s: Rang his voice: "Put Watts into 'em!  Boys, give 'em Watts!"


s: And they did.  That is all.  Grasses spring, flowers blow,


s: Pretty much as they did ninety-three years ago.


s: You may dig anywhere and you'll turn up a ball--


s: But not always a hero like this--and that's all.


s: We meet in peace, though from our native East


s: The sun that sparkles on our birthday feast


s: Glanced as he rose on fields whose dews were red


s: With darker tints than those Aurora spread.


s: Though shorn his rays, his welcome disk concealed


s: In the dim smoke that veiled each battlefield,


s: Still striving upward, in meridian pride,


s: He climbed the walls that East and West divide,--


s: Saw his bright face flashed back from golden sand,


s: And sapphire seas that lave the Western land.


s: Strange was the contrast that such scenes disclose


s: From his high vantage o'er eternal snows;


s: There War's alarm the brazen trumpet rings--


s: Here his love-song the mailed cicala sings;


s: There bayonets glitter through the forest glades--


s: Here yellow cornfields stack their peaceful blades;


s: There the deep trench where Valor finds a grave--


s: Here the long ditch that curbs the peaceful wave;


s: There the bold sapper with his lighted train--


s: Here the dark tunnel and its stores of gain;


s: Here the full harvest and the wain's advance--


s: There the Grim Reaper and the ambulance.


s: With scenes so adverse, what mysterious bond


s: Links our fair fortunes to the shores beyond?


s: Why come we here--last of a scattered fold--


s: To yield our tribute, stamped with Caesar's face,


s: To Caesar, stricken in the market-place?


s: That joins these contrasts 'neath one arching sky;


s: Though brighter paths our peaceful steps explore,


s: War winds her horn, and giant cliffs go down


s: Like the high walls that girt the sacred town,


s: And bares the pathway to her throbbing heart,


s: From clustered village and from crowded mart.


s: Part of God's providence it was to found


s: A Nation's bulwark on this chosen ground;


s: Planted these pickets in the distant West,


s: But He who first the Nation's fate forecast


s: Placed here His fountains sealed for ages past,


s: Rock-ribbed and guarded till the coming time


s: Should fit the people for their work sublime;


s: Smote the tall cliffs with one wide-ringing peal,


s: Judge not too idly that our toils are mean,


s: Though no new levies marshal on our green;


s: Nor deem too rashly that our gains are small,


s: Weighed with the prizes for which heroes fall.


s: See, where thick vapor wreathes the battle-line;


s: There Mercy follows with her oil and wine;


s: Or where brown Labor with its peaceful charm


s: Stiffens the sinews of the Nation's arm.


s: What nerves its hands to strike a deadlier blow


s: Lo! for each town new rising o'er our State


s: See the foe's hamlet waste and desolate,


s: While each new factory lifts its chimney tall,


s: Like a fresh mortar trained on Richmond's wall.


s: For this, O brothers, swings the fruitful vine,


s: Spread our broad pastures with their countless kine:


s: For this o'erhead the arching vault springs clear,


s: Sunlit and cloudless for one half the year;


s: For this no snowflake, e'er so lightly pressed,


s: Chills the warm impulse of our mother's breast.


s: Quick to reply, from meadows brown and sere,


s: She thrills responsive to Spring's earliest tear;


s: Breaks into blossom, flings her loveliest rose


s: Ere the white crocus mounts Atlantic snows;


s: Thus ours the lot with peaceful, generous hand


s: To spread our bounty o'er the suffering land;


s: Hurls a vast river splintering in its fall,--


s: Though the rapt soul who stands in awe below


s: Sees but the arching of the promised bow,


s: Lo! the far streamlet drinks its dews unseen,


s: And the whole valley wakes a brighter green.


s: Something--what is it?--a theme, a fancy?


s: Why, one half you poets--you can't deny--


s: Don't know the Muse when you chance to meet her,


s: But sit in your attics and mope and sigh


s: For a faineant goddess to drop from the sky,


s: Quite at your service, should you but greet her.


s: Of man and marriage may choose to make them.


s: Watching the currents that ebb and flow;


s: Isn't it pleasant, this bright June weather?


s: And I was a schoolgirl fresh from Paris;


s: And I--did nothing--for I was an heiress.


s: Quite at a profit.  The "shoulder-straps"


s: Thought I was pretty.  Ah, thank you! really?


s: Those were the sounds of that battle summer,


s: Till the earth seemed a parchment round and flat,


s: And every footfall the tap of a drummer;


s: Here at our door in the bright June weather.


s: Men from the West, but where I know not;


s: Haggard and travel-stained, worn and gray,


s: With never a ribbon or lace or bow-knot:


s: And I opened the window, and, leaning there,


s: I felt in their presence the free winds blowing.


s: My neck and shoulders and arms were bare,--


s: I did not dream they might think me fair,


s: But I had some flowers that night in my hair,


s: And here, on my bosom, a red rose glowing.


s: And I looked from the window along the line,


s: Till an eye like a bayonet flash met mine,


s: And a dark face shone from the darkening column,


s: And a quick flame leaped to my eyes and hair,


s: Till cheeks and shoulders burned all together,


s: And the next I found myself standing there


s: With my eyelids wet and my cheeks less fair,


s: And the rose from my bosom tossed high in air,


s: Like a blood-drop falling on plume and feather.


s: Then I drew back quickly: there came a cheer,


s: And then it was over, and high and clear


s: My red rose bloomed on his gun's black muzzle.


s: Then far in the darkness a sharp voice cried,


s: But bearing above them the rose, my pride,


s: They marched away in the twilight weather.


s: And I leaned from my window and watched my rose


s: Tossed on the waves of the surging column,


s: Then I shut the window.  I heard no more


s: Of my soldier friend, nor my flower neither,


s: You lean from your window, and watch life's column


s: Trampling and struggling through dust and dew,


s: Filled with its purposes grave and solemn;


s: And an act, a gesture, a face--who knows?--


s: Touches your fancy to thrill and haunt you,


s: And you pluck from your bosom the verse that grows


s: And down it flies like my red, red rose,


s: And think that your duty is done,--now don't you?


s: I know your answer.  I'm not yet through.


s: Look at this photograph,--"In the Trenches"!


s: Holds a withered rose in his hand.  That clenches


s: Nothing!--except that the sun paints true,


s: And a woman is sometimes prophetic-minded.


s: Come to your heart once more, as mine did.


s: There's a right smart chance for fur-chase


s: 'Twould be strange if there should be,--


s: While the forty sail it convoyed on a bowline stretched away.


s: Melted in the twilight shadows of the coast-line, speck by speck;


s: In the offing,--nor a broadside fired save to our mischance!--


s: Rode the yellow-sided "Serapis," and all alone we met!


s: For the first broadside around us both a smoky circle drew:


s: All the world shut out around us, and we only face to face!


s: "We have not yet begun to fight!" went shouting to the sky!


s: Half a cable's length to leeward; yet we faintly raised a cheer


s: And in that death-lock clinging held us there from first to last!


s: Till clear the blue beyond us through our yawning timbers showed.


s: Nor that all below us trembled like a wreck upon the rocks.


s: Of the enemy's ship's company to hide or work a gun:


s: And a hand-grenade, but lingered just a moment more to snatch


s: Nor knew I till the fight was o'er but half my work was done:


s: Act first, scene first.  A study.  Of a kind


s: Half cell, half salon, opulent yet grave;


s: Rare books, low-shelved, yet far above the mind


s: Some slight relief of pamphlets that inclined


s: The soul at first to trifling, till, dismayed


s: By text and title, it drew back resigned,


s: That to itself such perfect concord made.


s: Some thoughts like these perplexed the patriot brain


s: As on the threshold of this chaste domain


s: He paused expectant, and looked up in stealth


s: To darkened canvases that frowned amain,


s: With stern-eyed Puritans, who first began


s: To spread their roots in Georgius Primus' reign,


s: Nor dropped till now, obedient to some plan,


s: Their century fruit,--the perfect Boston man.


s: Somewhere within that Russia-scented gloom


s: A voice catarrhal thrilled the Member's ear:


s: "Brief is our business, Jones.  Look round this room!


s: Regard yon portraits!  Read their meaning clear!


s: These much proclaim MY station.  I presume


s: YOU are our Congressman, before whose wit


s: And sober judgment shall the youth appear


s: Who for West Point is deemed most just and fit


s: "Such is my son!  Elsewhere perhaps 'twere wise


s: Trial competitive should guide your choice.


s: There are some people I can well surmise


s: Themselves must show their merits.  History's voice


s: Spares me that trouble: all desert that lies


s: Or yon grave Governor, is all my boy's,--


s: Reverts to him; entailed, as one might say;


s: In brief, result in Winthrop Adams Grey!"


s: He turned and laid his well-bred hand, and smiled,


s: On the cropped head of one who stood beside.


s: Nor brawny youth that thrilled the father's pride;


s: 'Twas but a Mind that somehow had beguiled


s: From soulless Matter processes that served


s: For speech and motion and digestion mild,


s: Content if all one moral purpose nerved,


s: Nor recked thereby its spine were somewhat curved.


s: He was scarce eighteen.  Yet ere he was eight


s: He had despoiled the classics; much he knew


s: Of Sanskrit; not that he placed undue weight


s: On this, but that it helped him with Hebrew,


s: His favorite tongue.  He learned, alas! too late,


s: One can't begin too early,--would regret


s: That philologic goal on which his soul was set.


s: And accent.  "Mabille" with its glories then


s: Nothing if not pure classic.  If some men


s: Thought him a prig, it vexed not his conceit,


s: But moved his pity, and ofttimes his pen,


s: The better to instruct them, through some sheet


s: Published in Boston, and signed "Beacon Street."


s: From premises so plain the blind could see


s: But one deduction, and it came next day.


s: "In times like these, the very name of G.


s: "Inclosed please find appointment."  Presently


s: Fourteen professors, and, to give esprit,


s: The Liberal Club some eighteen ladies sent,


s: Five that spoke Greek, and thirteen sentiment.


s: Four poets came who loved each other's song,


s: And two philosophers, who thought that they


s: Were in most things impractical and wrong;


s: On herbs and water, and such simple fare;


s: Two foreign lions, "Ram See" and "Chy Long,"


s: And several artists claimed attention there,


s: Based on the fact they had been snubbed elsewhere.


s: With this indorsement nothing now remained


s: But counsel, Godspeed, and some calm adieux;


s: No foolish tear the father's eyelash stained,


s: And Winthrop's cheek as guiltless shone of dew.


s: In classic Rome, these few last hours attended.


s: The day arrived, the train and depot gained,


s: The mayor's own presence this last act commended


s: The train moved off and here the first act ended.


s: Where West Point crouches, and with lifted shield


s: Turns the whole river eastward through the pass;


s: Whose jutting crags, half silver, stand revealed


s: Where buttressed low against the storms that wield


s: Their summer lightnings where her eaglets swarm,


s: By Freedom's cradle Nature's self has steeled


s: Her heart, like Winkelried, and to that storm


s: But not to-night.  The air and woods are still,


s: The lowest tremor from the mountain rill,


s: Come to the ear as but the trailing flow


s: Of spirit robes that walk unseen the hill;


s: The moon low sailing o'er the upland farm,


s: The moon low sailing where the waters fill


s: The lozenge lake, beside the banks of balm,


s: Gleams like a chevron on the river's arm.


s: All space breathes languor: from the hilltop high,


s: Where Putnam's bastion crumbles in the past,


s: To swooning depths where drowsy cannon lie


s: And wide-mouthed mortars gape in slumbers vast;


s: Stroke upon stroke, the far oars glance and die


s: On the hushed bosom of the sleeping stream;


s: Bright for one moment drifts a white sail by,


s: Bright for one moment shows a bayonet gleam


s: Far on the level plain, then passes as a dream.


s: Soft down the line of darkened battlements,


s: Bright on each lattice of the barrack walls,


s: Where the low arching sallyport indents,


s: Seen through its gloom beyond, the moonbeam falls.


s: All is repose save where the camping tents


s: Mock the white gravestones farther on, where sound


s: No morning guns for reveille, nor whence


s: No drum-beat calls retreat, but still is ever found


s: Waiting and present on each sentry's round.


s: Within the camp they lie, the young, the brave,


s: Half knight, half schoolboy, acolytes of fame,


s: Pledged to one altar, and perchance one grave;


s: Bred to fear nothing but reproach and blame,


s: Clean-limbed young Spartans, disciplined young elves,


s: Taught to destroy, that they may live to save,


s: Students embattled, soldiers at their shelves,


s: Heroes whose conquests are at first themselves.


s: Within the camp they lie, in dreams are freed


s: From the grim discipline they learn to love;


s: In dreams no more the sentry's challenge heed,


s: In dreams afar beyond their pickets rove;


s: One treads once more the piny paths that lead


s: To his green mountain home, and pausing hears


s: The cattle call; one treads the tangled weed


s: Of slippery rocks beside Atlantic piers;


s: One smiles in sleep, one wakens wet with tears.


s: One scents the breath of jasmine flowers that twine


s: The pillared porches of his Southern home;


s: One hears the coo of pigeons in the pine


s: Of Western woods where he was wont to roam;


s: One sees the sunset fire the distant line


s: Where the long prairie sweeps its levels down;


s: One treads the snow-peaks; one by lamps that shine


s: Down the broad highways of the sea-girt town;


s: And two are missing,--Cadets Grey and Brown!


s: That selfsame truant known as "Cadet Grey"


s: Shorn of his twofold names on entrance-day.


s: "Winthrop" and "Adams" dropped in that one act


s: Of martial curtness, and the roll-call thinned


s: Indulgence claimed, since Winthrop no more sinned,


s: Nor sainted Adams winced when he, plain Grey, was "skinned."


s: He had known trials since we saw him last,


s: By sheer good luck had just escaped rejection,


s: Not for his learning, but that it was cast


s: In a spare frame scarce fit for drill inspection;


s: But when he ope'd his lips a stream so vast


s: They quite forgot his eyeglass,--something past


s: All precedent,--accepting the transgressor,


s: Weak eyes and all of which he was possessor.


s: E'en the first day he touched a blackboard's space--


s: Two wise professors fainted, each with face


s: White as the chalk within his rapid fingers:


s: All day he ciphered, at such frantic pace,


s: Of every problem, till they said his case


s: Could meet from them no fair examination


s: From the mess hash to many a listening classful;


s: Three kinds of "Mentha" in one julep's glassful;


s: He was the first at West Point to discover


s: Mars' missing satellites, and calculated


s: Their true positions, not the heavens over,


s: But 'neath the window of Miss Kitty Rover.


s: At least two youths of aspect most terrestrial,


s: And clad in uniform, were loitering near


s: A villa's casement, where a gentle vestal


s: Took their impatience somewhat patiently,


s: Knowing the youths were somewhat green and "bestial"--


s: For when they ceased their ardent strain, Miss Kitty


s: Glowed not with anger nor a kindred flame,


s: But rather flushed with an odd sort of pity,


s: Half matron's kindness, and half coquette's shame;


s: Proud yet quite blameful, when she heard their ditty


s: And being clever too, as she was pretty,


s: From her high casement warbled this confession,--


s: Half provocation and one half repression:--


s: Not yet, O friend, not yet! the patient stars


s: Lean from their lattices, content to wait.


s: Slip from the levels of the Eastern gate.


s: Night is too young, O friend! day is too near;


s: Wait for the day that maketh all things clear.


s: Not yet, O love, not yet! all is not true,


s: Soon dies yon light upon the mountain brow.


s: What lieth dark, O love, bright day will fill;


s: Wait for thy morning, be it good or ill.


s: The strain was finished; softly as the night


s: Her voice died from the window, yet e'en then


s: Fluttered and fell likewise a kerchief white;


s: But that no doubt was accident, for when


s: She sought her couch she deemed her conduct quite


s: Beyond the reach of scandalous commenter,--


s: Washing her hands of either gallant wight,


s: Knowing the moralist might compliment her,--


s: Thus voicing Siren with the words of Mentor.


s: She little knew the youths below, who straight


s: Dived for her kerchief, and quite overlooked


s: Nor dreamed the less how little Winthrop brooked


s: Her right to doubt his soul's maturer state.


s: Brown--who was Western, amiable, and new--


s: Might take the moral and accept his fate;


s: The which he did, but, being stronger too,


s: Took the white kerchief, also, as his due.


s: They did not quarrel, which no doubt seemed queer


s: To those who knew not how their friendship blended;


s: Each was opposed, and each the other's peer,


s: Yet each the other in some things transcended.


s: Where Brown lacked culture, brains,--and oft, I fear,


s: Cash in his pocket,--Grey of course supplied him;


s: Where Grey lacked frankness, force, and faith sincere,


s: Brown of his manhood suffered none to chide him,


s: But in his faults stood manfully beside him.


s: In the camp drill and martial occupation,


s: They helped each other: but just here I crave


s: Space for the reader's full imagination,--


s: The fact is patent, Grey became a slave!


s: All that blue blood and ancestry e'er gave


s: Cleaned guns, brought water!--was, in fact, retainer


s: To Jones, whose uncle was a paper-stainer!


s: How they bore this at home I cannot say:


s: It chanced one day that the paternal Grey


s: Came to West Point that he himself might hail


s: Consistent with his lineage.  With him came


s: Of aunts and uncles, bearing each a name,


s: "Observe!" quoth Grey the elder to his friends,


s: "Not in these giddy youths at baseball playing


s: You'll notice Winthrop Adams!  Greater ends


s: Than these absorb HIS leisure.  No doubt straying


s: Some Roman council.  Let us ask, however,


s: To find--  What! heaven!  Winthrop!  Oh! no! never!"


s: Alas! too true!  The last of all the Greys


s: That crowned the pictured Puritans at home!


s: And yet 'twas certain that in grosser ways


s: Of health and physique he was quite improving.


s: Straighter he stood, and had achieved some praise


s: A soldier's taste than merely dirt removing.


s: But to resume: we left the youthful pair,


s: Some stanzas back, before a lady's bower;


s: 'Tis to be hoped they were no longer there,


s: For stars were pointing to the morning hour.


s: Their escapade discovered, ill 'twould fare


s: With our two heroes, derelict of orders;


s: But, like the ghost, they "scent the morning air,"


s: And back again they steal across the borders,


s: Unseen, unheeded, by their martial warders.


s: They got to bed with speed: young Grey to dream


s: Of some vague future with a general's star,


s: And Mistress Kitty basking in its gleam;


s: While Brown, content to worship her afar,


s: Dreamed himself dying by some lonely stream,


s: Having snatched Kitty from eighteen Nez Perces,


s: Till a far bugle, with the morning beam,


s: In his dull ear its fateful song rehearses,


s: Which Winthrop Adams after put to verses.


s: So passed three years of their novitiate,


s: The first real boyhood Grey had ever known.


s: His youth ran clear,--not choked like his Cochituate,


s: In civic pipes, but free and pure alone;


s: Yet knew repression, could himself habituate


s: To having mind and body well rubbed down,


s: Could read himself in others, and could situate


s: Themselves in him,--except, I grieve to own,


s: He couldn't see what Kitty saw in Brown!


s: In the One Hundredth Cavalry commission;


s: Then frolic, flirting, parting,--when none grieved


s: Save Brown, who loved our young Academician.


s: And Grey, who felt his friend was still deceived


s: By Mistress Kitty, who with other beauties


s: Graced the occasion, and it was believed


s: Had promised Brown that when he could recruit his


s: Promised command, she'd share with him those duties.


s: Howe'er this was I know not; all I know,


s: The night was June's, the moon rode high and clear;


s: "'Twas such a night as this," three years ago,


s: Miss Kitty sang the song that two might hear.


s: There is a walk where trees o'erarching grow,


s: Too wide for one, not wide enough for three


s: Which quite explained Miss Kitty's company,


s: But not why Grey that favored one should be.


s: There is a spring, whose limpid waters hide


s: Somewhere within the shadows of that path


s: Called Kosciusko's.  There two figures bide,--


s: Grey and Miss Kitty.  Surely Nature hath


s: Than this same pool that caught our gentle belle


s: To its dark heart one moment.  At her side


s: Grey bent.  A something trembled o'er the well,


s: Bright, spherical--a tear?  Ah no! a button fell!


s: "Material minds might think that gravitation,"


s: Quoth Grey, "drew yon metallic spheroid down.


s: Fraught with more meaning.  When thy girlish crown


s: Was mirrored there, there was disintegration


s: But here came "Taps," a start, a smile, adieu!


s: Where the sun sinks through leagues of arid sky,


s: Where the sun dies o'er leagues of arid plain,


s: Where the dead bones of wasted rivers lie,


s: Trailed from their channels in yon mountain chain;


s: Where day by day naught takes the wearied eye


s: But the low-rimming mountains, sharply based


s: As the sick vision wanders o'er the waste,


s: But ever day by day against the sunset traced:


s: There moving through a poisonous cloud that stings


s: Heavy with spoil, they seek the trail that brings


s: Their flaunting lances to that sheltered bank


s: Where lie their lodges; and the river sings


s: Forgetful of the plain beyond, that drank


s: Its life blood, where the wasted caravan sank.


s: They brought with them the thief's ignoble spoil,


s: The beggar's dole, the greed of chiffonnier,


s: The scum of camps, the implements of toil


s: Snatched from dead hands, to rust as useless here;


s: All they could rake or glean from hut or soil


s: Piled their lean ponies, with the jackdaw's greed


s: For vacant glitter.  It were scarce a foil


s: To all this tinsel that one feathered reed


s: Bore on its barb two scalps that freshly bleed!


s: They brought with them, alas! a wounded foe,


s: Bound hand and foot, yet nursed with cruel care,


s: Lest that in death he might escape one throe


s: They had decreed his living flesh should bear:


s: Of treachery surprised, yet fighting still


s: Amid his ambushed train, calm as the snow


s: Above him; hopeless, yet content to spill


s: His blood with theirs, and fighting but to kill.


s: He had fought nobly, and in that brief spell


s: Had won the awe of those rude border men


s: Who gathered round him, and beside him fell


s: In loyal faith and silence, save that when


s: By smoke embarrassed, and near sight as well,


s: He paused to wipe his eyeglass, and decide


s: "Wade in, Dundreary!" tossed his cap and--died.


s: Their sole survivor now! his captors bear


s: Him all unconscious, and beside the stream


s: Leave him to rest; meantime the squaws prepare


s: The stake for sacrifice: nor wakes a gleam


s: Of pity in those Furies' eyes that glare


s: His steadfast spirit shines and mocks them there


s: With peace they know not, till at close of day


s: On his dull ear there thrills a whispered "Grey!"


s: He starts!  Was it a trick?  Had angels kind


s: Touched with compassion some weak woman's breast?


s: Such things he'd read of!  Faintly to his mind


s: But then, this voice, though soft, was still inclined


s: Stood near him, frowning hatred.  Was he blind?


s: Whose eye was this beneath that beetling frown?


s: The frown was painted, but that wink meant--Brown!


s: "Hush! for your life and mine! the thongs are cut,"


s: He whispers; "in yon thicket stands my horse.


s: One dash!--I follow close, as if to glut


s: My own revenge, yet bar the others' course.


s: Now!"  And 'tis done.  Grey speeds, Brown follows; but


s: Ere yet they reach the shade, Grey, fainting, reels,


s: Yet not before Brown's circling arms close shut


s: A horse beneath him bound, and hears the rattling heels.


s: Then rose a yell of baffled hate, and sprang


s: Though speed the fugitives, they hope to hang


s: Hot on their heels, like wolves, with tireless foot.


s: Long is the chase; Brown hears with inward pang


s: The short, hard panting of his gallant steed


s: Both voice and spur.  The heaving flanks may bleed,


s: Yet comes the sequel that they still must heed!


s: Brown saw it--reined his steed; dismounting, stood


s: Calm and inflexible.  "Old chap! you see


s: There is but ONE escape.  You know it?  Good!


s: There is ONE man to take it.  You are he.


s: The horse won't carry double.  If he could,


s: 'Twould but protract this bother.  I shall stay:


s: I've business with these devils, they with me;


s: Hush! quick time, forward.  There! God bless you, Grey!"


s: But as he finished, Grey slipped to his feet,


s: "You do forget yourself when you compete


s: With him whose RIGHT it is to stay and die:


s: That's not YOUR duty.  Please regain your seat;


s: And take my ORDERS--since I rank you here!--


s: Mount and rejoin your men, and my defeat


s: Report at quarters.  Take this letter; ne'er


s: Give it to aught but HER, nor let aught interfere."


s: And, shamed and blushing, Brown the letter took


s: Then, drawing forth another, said, "I look


s: For death as you do, wherefore take this locket


s: And letter."  Here his comrade's hand he shook


s: In silence.  "Should we both together fall,


s: Some other man"--but here all speech forsook


s: 'Twas his command and succor, but e'en then


s: Grey fainted, with poor Brown, who had forgot


s: He likewise had been wounded, and both men


s: Were picked up quite unconscious of their lot.


s: They both grew stronger, and once more exchanged


s: In hospital was theirs, and free they ranged,


s: And yet 'twas strange--nor can I end my tale


s: Without this moral, to be fair and just:


s: They never sought to know why each did fail


s: The prompt fulfillment of the other's trust.


s: Themselves of either letter, since they were


s: Duly dispatched to their address by mail


s: Now meant stout Mistress Bloggs of Blank Blank Square.


s: And fissure, cracked by the fervid drouth,


s: The wells were empty and choked with sand;


s: Slipped like ghosts of the streams below.


s: Bleaching in pebbles and milk-white stones,


s: And tracked o'er the desert faint and far,


s: Its ribs shone bright on each sandy bar.


s: Thus they looked to the South, wherefrom


s: The Padre dropped at the heathen's feet.


s: And a smile of scorn went round the band


s: As they touched alternate with foot and hand


s: From the blowing desert sands that rise,


s: Thy limbs are racked with the fever-pain.


s: "Drink but this cup," said the Padre, straight,


s: These aching limbs to your heathen door,


s: From the heathen dashed to the ground below


s: And the thirsty soil drank the precious store


s: Then, says the legend (and they who doubt


s: From the dry and feverish soil leaped out


s: Till the granite ribs and the milk-white stones


s: That lay in the valley--the scattered bones--


s: From the hands of the pious Padre Serro,


s: That ever were flowing in fact or rhyme,


s: There were none like the Spring of San Joaquin.


s: By his mule's miraculous cast of a shoe;


s: For his beast--a descendant of Balaam's ass--


s: Stopped on the instant, and would not pass.


s: And bent his lips to the trickling flood;


s: On the honest faith of a true believer--


s: His cheeks, though wasted, lank, and bare,


s: And the snows that seventy winters bring


s: The Church, of course, had its own views


s: They laid out the Mission of San Joaquin.


s: Limbs grew supple and waists grew stout;


s: You'll still find eyes in which are seen


s: And the Mission of San Joaquin had this;


s: But they fell sick in the queerest way,--


s: The world and the Mission of San Joaquin.


s: Was filled with the spicing of pine and bay


s: The smoke of the burning woods ascended.


s: The forests waltzed till they grew sick,


s: And Nature shook in a speechless passion;


s: And, swallowed up in the earthquake's spleen,


s: But that, no doubt, was from earthquake fright.


s: Bells of the Past, whose long-forgotten music


s: Tingeing the sober twilight of the Present


s: I hear your call, and see the sun descending


s: As down the coast the Mission voices, blending,


s: Nor fierce unrest, nor lust, nor low ambition


s: Borne on the swell of your long waves receding,


s: Before me rise the dome-shaped Mission towers,


s: The swart commander in his leathern jerkin,


s: Once more I see Portala's cross uplifting


s: And past the headland, northward, slowly drifting,


s: O solemn bells! whose consecrated masses


s: O tinkling bells! that lulled with twilight music


s: Your voices break and falter in the darkness,--


s: And veiled and mystic, like the Host descending,


s: Looking seaward, o'er the sand-hills stands the fortress, old and


s: By the San Francisco friars lifted to their patron saint,--


s: Sponsor to that wondrous city, now apostate to the creed,


s: On whose youthful walls the Padre saw the angel's golden reed;


s: Never scar of siege or battle challenges the wandering eye,


s: Never breach of warlike onset holds the curious passer-by;


s: Only one sweet human fancy interweaves its threads of gold


s: Only one thing holds its crumbling walls above the meaner dust,--


s: Count von Resanoff, the Russian, envoy of the mighty Czar,


s: Stood beside the deep embrasures, where the brazen cannon are.


s: He with grave provincial magnates long had held serene debate


s: On the Treaty of Alliance and the high affairs of state;


s: He from grave provincial magnates oft had turned to talk apart


s: With the Commandante's daughter on the questions of the heart,


s: Until points of gravest import yielded slowly one by one,


s: And by Love was consummated what Diplomacy begun;


s: Till beside the deep embrasures, where the brazen cannon are,


s: He received the twofold contract for approval of the Czar;


s: Till beside the brazen cannon the betrothed bade adieu,


s: And from sallyport and gateway north the Russian eagles flew.


s: Long beside the deep embrasures, where the brazen cannon are,


s: Did they wait the promised bridegroom and the answer of the Czar;


s: Day by day on wall and bastion beat the hollow, empty breeze,--


s: Day by day the sunlight glittered on the vacant, smiling seas:


s: So each year the seasons shifted,--wet and warm and drear and dry


s: Yet she heard the varying message, voiceless to all ears beside:


s: Until hollows chased the dimples from her cheeks of olive brown,


s: Or the small mouth curved and quivered as for some denied caress,


s: Then the grim Commander, pacing where the brazen cannon are,


s: Comforted the maid with proverbs, wisdom gathered from afar;


s: Bits of ancient observation by his fathers garnered, each


s: As a pebble worn and polished in the current of his speech:


s: "'Those who wait the coming rider travel twice as far as he;'


s: 'Tired wench and coming butter never did in time agree;'


s: "'He whose father is Alcalde of his trial hath no fear,'--


s: And on "Concha" "Conchitita," and "Conchita" he would dwell


s: With the fond reiteration which the Spaniard knows so well.


s: So with proverbs and caresses, half in faith and half in doubt,


s: Every day some hope was kindled, flickered, faded, and went out.


s: Yearly, down the hillside sweeping, came the stately cavalcade,


s: Bringing revel to vaquero, joy and comfort to each maid;


s: Bringing days of formal visit, social feast and rustic sport,


s: Of bull-baiting on the plaza, of love-making in the court.


s: Vainly then at Concha's lattice, vainly as the idle wind,


s: Rose the thin high Spanish tenor that bespoke the youth too kind;


s: Vainly, leaning from their saddles, caballeros, bold and fleet,


s: So in vain the barren hillsides with their gay serapes blazed,--


s: Blazed and vanished in the dust-cloud that their flying hoofs had


s: The Commander and his daughter each took up the dull routine,--


s: Each took up the petty duties of a life apart and lone,


s: Till the slow years wrought a music in its dreary monotone.


s: Forty years on wall and bastion swept the hollow idle breeze,


s: Since the Russian eagle fluttered from the California seas;


s: Forty years on wall and bastion wrought its slow but sure decay,


s: And St. George's cross was lifted in the port of Monterey;


s: And the citadel was lighted, and the hall was gayly drest,


s: All to honor Sir George Simpson, famous traveler and guest.


s: Far and near the people gathered to the costly banquet set,


s: And exchanged congratulations with the English baronet;


s: Till, the formal speeches ended, and amidst the laugh and wine,


s: Some one spoke of Concha's lover,--heedless of the warning sign.


s: And a trembling figure rising fixed the awestruck gaze of all.


s: You can see her house, but the view is best


s: From the porch of the church where she lies at rest;


s: Where much of her past still lives, I think,


s: In the scowling brows and sidelong blink


s: Of the worshiping throng that rise or sink


s: To the waxen saints that, yellow and lank,


s: Lean out from their niches, rank on rank,


s: With a bloodless Saviour on either flank;


s: In the gouty pillars, whose cracks begin


s: And I think that the moral of all, you'll say,


s: Is the sculptured legend that moulds away


s: Shot--but the Rock of the Church lives on.


s: To a country haggard with sloth and greed,


s: Peeps out from the bin like a sleek brown rat?


s: What matters?  Naught, if it serves to bring


s: Yet, from his black plume's curving grace


s: To his slim black gauntlet's smaller space,


s: The Marquis stopped where the lime-trees blow,


s: And begged that the Marquis would that night take


s: The usual wish, that his guest would hold


s: The house, and all that it might enfold,


s: As his--with the bride scarce three days old.


s: Nor raised his head till his black plume swept


s: Her place, as her husband backward stept.


s: Burned through his lace and titled wreath,


s: Till it touched the steel of the man beneath!


s: And the lady's beauty, her worst intent.)


s: Watched from the wall till he saw the square


s: Fill with the moonlight, white and bare,--


s: That the old church tower and belfry made


s: Few words spoke the seneschal as he turned


s: To his nearest sentry: "These monks have learned


s: Meanwhile, wait thou till the morning light."


s: Did the sentry meet his commander's eye,


s: As this host's and guest's high courtesies!


s: The seneschal feared, as the wind was west,


s: A blast from Morena had chilled his rest;


s: That cares of state, and--he dared to say--


s: Some fears that the King could not repay


s: The thoughtful zeal of his host, some way


s: Had marred his rest.  Yet he trusted much


s: None shared his wakefulness; though such


s: Still slept!  At least, they missed her glance


s: Of the painful news his guest should learn:


s: "But hope for the best."  The grave Viceroy


s: (Though grieved his visit had such alloy)


s: To horse, if they'd 'scape the noonday dust.


s: To mend the news of this funeral priest,


s: To his nearest follower: "With me ride--


s: "No more."  Then gravely in accents clear


s: Took formal leave of his late good cheer;


s: Whiles the seneschal whispered a musketeer,


s: To some favored spot for the dust's return,


s: This much, for the pains Christ did endure.


s: Rose through the green of the Almandral,


s: To his kindred dust 'neath the choir wall.


s: To see the doors of the church swing wide;


s: That the wounds of the Saviour on either flank


s: Bled fresh, as the mourners, rank by rank,


s: Went by with the coffin, clank on clank.


s: For why?  When they raised the marble door


s: Of the tomb, untouched for years before,


s: For there, in her laces and festal dress,


s: What was their greeting, the groom and bride,


s: They whom that steel and the years divide?


s: I know not.  Here they lie side by side.


s: Side by side!  Though the king has his way,


s: Woke to hear all this, and, waking, turned and fled!


s: Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine,--


s: From the poisoned lower levels of the mine!"


s: And shuffling, scrambling, tumbling from below,


s: "There has one already gone, whoe'er he be!"


s: Fastened by some skillful hand from below;


s: The long line that brought them back to hope and cheer!


s: Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine.


s: Good!--said the Padre,--believe me still,


s: That wolves are sent to the purest fold,


s: And we'd save the wolf if we'd get the lamb.


s: Well, for some purpose, I grant you dim,


s: The Don loved women, and they loved him.


s: Each thought herself his LAST love!  Worst,


s: And, such are these creatures since the Fall,


s: You laugh!  You are young, but I--indeed


s: You saw, as you passed through the upper town,


s: And as many holes through his doublet's band


s: As there were wronged husbands--you understand!


s: May be.  Quien sabe?  Who else should know?


s: Private.  What would you?  To proceed:--


s: The well-known twang of the Don's guitar;


s: Saw, it was said, through his niece's glass,


s: Heaven and the Church only knows.  At best


s: With Sin as a Ghost, they couldn't but feel


s: Was an awful thing.  Till a certain Fray


s: That the Fray was a stranger?  No, Senor?


s: Strange! very strange!  I should have said


s: That the very week that the Don lay dead


s: His face was hidden.  There are such vows!


s: Of the Fray were these: that the penance done


s: Was due from the CAUSE, and that, in brief,


s: And Carmen,--well, half the girls in town


s: On his tablets the Friar had written down.


s: They came; each knelt in her turn and place


s: Took back her soul freed from spot or stain,


s: And a tear on their fringes, knelt her last.


s: And then--perhaps that her voice was low


s: From fear or from shame--the monks said so--


s: But the Fray leaned forward, when, presto! all


s: Were thrilled by a scream, and saw her fall


s: As the Fray had said.  Never more his shade


s: "Nothing," said she, when they brought her to--


s: "Only a faintness!"  They spoke more true


s: Who said 'twas a stubborn soul. But then--


s: Having got the wolf, by the same high law


s: We saved the lamb in the wolf's own jaw,


s: But poorly told.  Yet it strikes me here


s: Is stuff for a moral.  What's your view?


s: You smile, Don Pancho.  Ah! that's like you!


s: The watercourses rang full loud and clear;


s: Portala's cross stood where Portala's hand


s: Had planted it when Faith was taught by Fear,


s: When monks and missions held the sole command


s: Of all that shore beside the peaceful sea,


s: Where spring-tides beat their long-drawn reveille.


s: All in that brisk, tumultuous spring weather,


s: With six dragoons in cuirasses of leather,


s: Each armed alike for either prayer or fray;


s: Handcuffs and missals they had slung together,


s: And as an aid the gospel truth to scatter


s: In sooth, that year the harvest had been slack,


s: The crop of converts scarce worth computation;


s: Some souls were lost, whose owners had turned back


s: To save their bodies frequent flagellation;


s: And some preferred the songs of birds, alack!


s: To Latin matins and their souls' salvation,


s: And thought their own wild whoopings were less dreary


s: To bring them back to matins and to prime,


s: To prove to them that liberty was crime,--


s: This was, in fact, the Padre's present mission;


s: To get new souls perchance at the same time,


s: And bring them to a "sense of their condition,"--


s: That easy phrase, which, in the past and present,


s: Means making that condition most unpleasant.


s: He saw the glebe land guiltless of a furrow;


s: He saw the wild oats wrestle on the hill;


s: He saw the gopher working in his burrow;


s: He saw the squirrel scampering at his will:--


s: He saw all this, and felt no doubt a thorough


s: And deep conviction of God's goodness; still


s: Yet left the humblest of His creatures free.


s: He saw the flapping crow, whose frequent note


s: Mocking with graceless wing and rusty coat


s: He would have cursed the bird by bell and rote,


s: But other game just then was in his eye,--


s: A savage camp, whose occupants preferred


s: Their heathen darkness to the living Word.


s: He rang his bell, and at the martial sound


s: Twelve silver spurs their jingling rowels clashed;


s: Six horses sprang across the level ground


s: Above their heads the lassos circled round,


s: They charged the camp, and in one moment more


s: The Friar saw the conflict from a knoll,


s: And sang Laus Deo and cheered on his men:


s: "Well thrown, Bautista,--that's another soul;


s: This way, Felipe,--there the heathen stole;


s: Bones of St. Francis!--surely that makes TEN;


s: Te Deum laudamus--but they're very wild;


s: When at that moment--as the story goes--


s: A certain squaw, who had her foes eluded,


s: Ran past the Friar, just before his nose.


s: He stared a moment, and in silence brooded;


s: And every other prudent thought excluded;


s: He caught a lasso, and dashed in a canter


s: High o'er his head he swirled the dreadful noose;


s: But, as the practice was quite unfamiliar,


s: His first cast tore Felipe's captive loose,


s: And might have interfered with that brave youth's


s: But all things come by practice, and at last


s: His flying slip-knot caught the maiden fast.


s: Then rose above the plain a mingled yell


s: The Padre heard it like a passing knell,


s: And would have loosened his unchristian loop;


s: But the tough raw-hide held the captive well,


s: And held, alas! too well the captor-dupe;


s: For with one bound the savage fled amain,


s: Dragging horse, Friar, down the lonely plain.


s: By heath and hollow, sped the flying maid,


s: Dragging behind her still the panting steed


s: And trusted to the saints,--and, for that matter,


s: And, like baptism, held the flying wretch,--


s: A doctrine that the priest had oft expressed,


s: Which, like the lasso, might be made to stretch,


s: But would not break; so neither could divest


s: Themselves of it, but, like some awful fetch,


s: He saw the glebe land guiltless of a furrow;


s: He saw the wild oats wrestle on the hill;


s: He saw the gopher standing in his burrow;


s: He saw the squirrel scampering at his will:--


s: He saw all this, and felt no doubt how thorough


s: The contrast was to his condition; still


s: The squaw kept onward to the sea, till night


s: And the cold sea-fog hid them both from sight.


s: The morning came above the serried coast,


s: Lighting the snow-peaks with its beacon-fires,


s: Driving before it all the fleet-winged host


s: Of chattering birds above the Mission spires,


s: Filling the land with light and joy, but most


s: The savage woods with all their leafy lyres;


s: The morning came, but not the holy Friar.


s: Weeks passed away.  In vain the Fathers sought


s: Some trace or token that might tell his story;


s: Some thought him dead, or, like Elijah, caught


s: In this surmise some miracles were wrought


s: Were thought to profit from his intercession;


s: In brief, his absence made a "deep impression."


s: A twelvemonth passed; the welcome Spring once more


s: Made green the hills beside the white-faced Mission,


s: Spread her bright dais by the western shore,


s: And sat enthroned, a most resplendent vision.


s: The heathen converts thronged the chapel door


s: At morning mass, when, says the old tradition,


s: A frightful whoop throughout the church resounded,


s: And to their feet the congregation bounded.


s: A tramp of hoofs upon the beaten course,


s: Then came a sight that made the bravest quail:


s: Dragged by a creature decked with horns and tail.


s: By the lone Mission, with the whirlwind's force,


s: They madly swept, and left a sulphurous trail:


s: And that was all,--enough to tell the story,


s: And leave unblessed those souls in purgatory.


s: With savage whoop and heathenish hallooing,


s: Which brought discredit on San Luis Rey,


s: And proved the Mission's ruin and undoing;


s: For ere ten years had passed, the squaw and Friar


s: Performed to empty walls and fallen spire.


s: The golden lizards slip, or breathless pause,


s: Still as the sunshine brokenly that falls


s: Through crannied roof and spider-webs of gauze;


s: No more the bell its solemn warning calls,--


s: And the sharp lights and shadows of to-day


s: I speak not the English well, but Pachita,


s: She speak for me; is it not so, my Pancha?


s: Eh, little rogue?  Come, salute me the stranger


s: Sir, in my country we say, "Where the heart is,


s: There live the speech."  Ah! you not understand?  So!


s: Pardon an old man,--what you call "old fogy,"--


s: Old, Senor, old! just so old as the Mission.


s: You see that pear-tree?  How old you think, Senor?


s: Fifteen year?  Twenty?  Ah, Senor, just fifty


s: You like the wine?  It is some at the Mission,


s: Made from the grape of the year eighteen hundred;


s: All the same time when the earthquake he come to


s: But Pancha is twelve, and she is the rose-tree;


s: And I am the olive, and this is the garden:


s: And "Pancha" we say, but her name is "Francisca,"


s: Eh, you knew HER?  No?  Ah! it is a story;


s: But I speak not, like Pachita, the English:


s: So! if I try, you will sit here beside me,


s: One,--he was fine man,--he buy the cattle


s: So! he came much, and Francisca, she saw him:


s: And it was love,--and a very dry season;


s: And the pears bake on the tree,--and the rain come,


s: Not for one year; and one night I have walk much


s: Under the olive-tree, when comes Francisca,--


s: Comes to me here, with her child, this Francisca,--


s: Sir, it was sad;... but I speak not the English;


s: So!... she stay here, and she wait for her husband:


s: He come no more, and she sleep on the hillside;


s: Ah! there's the Angelus.  Will you not enter?


s: Or shall you walk in the garden with Pancha?


s: Go, little rogue--st! attend to the stranger!


s: So, he's been telling that yarn about mother!


s: Bless you! he tells it to every stranger:


s: Folks about yer say the old man's my father;


s: The trains were waiting outside the walls,


s: And these same truths, as far as I know,


s: The divers plunged in the gulf for pearls,


s: And sailed through the sixty-fifth degree


s: Of which De Fonte told such strange things,


s: They found of the long-lost treasure-ship,


s: But when she was lost, and where and how,


s: Take, if you please, the chart of that day,


s: How did she get there?  What strange spell


s: Of the galleon's course, which was west-sou'-west.


s: Said the stranger, "Then you've wrongly reckoned;


s: "On the ninth of May,--our patron's day."


s: "On the ninth?--YOU HAD NO NINTH OF MAY!


s: In his third chapter, third and fourth verse;


s: The galleon's chaplain,--a learned man,--


s: And the way to look for a thing is plain,


s: And there will the missing day be found;


s: But lo! when it came to the ninth of May,


s: And of course the moment she lost her way,


s: And the sun, meanwhile, would never wait.


s: And there she rides through two hundred years


s: Yet, through the grace of the saint she served,


s: From the time she lost the ninth of May.


s: A crash, a cry from a shattered wreck,--


s: For the blessed patron has found his day.


s: Hedn't no savey, hed Briggs.  Thar, Jack! that'll do,--quit that


s: Struck for that ford in the night, in the rain, and the water all


s: Lickity, lickity, switch, we came to the ford, and Chiquita


s: Just as she swam the Fork,--that hoss, that 'ar filly, Chiquita.


s: Ye see the derned fool had no seat, ye couldn't have made him a


s: And then, ye know, boys will be boys, and hosses--well, hosses is


s: But Dow in his well kept a peggin' in his usual ridikilous way.


s: With a shovel and pick on his shoulder, and derringer hid in his


s: For you see the dern cuss had struck--"Water?"--Beg your parding,


s: Cicely says you're a poet; maybe,--I ain't much on rhyme:


s: I reckon you'd give me a hundred, and beat me every time.


s: Poetry!--that's the way some chaps puts up an idee,


s: But I takes mine "straight without sugar," and that's what's the


s: Poetry!--just look round you,--alkali, rock, and sage;


s: Sage-brush, rock, and alkali; ain't it a pretty page!


s: Sun in the east at mornin', sun in the west at night,


s: Poetry!--Well now--Polly!  Polly, run to your mam;


s: Run right away, my pooty!  By-by!  Ain't she a lamb?


s: Poetry!--that reminds me o' suthin' right in that suit:


s: Jest shet that door thar, will yer?--for Cicely's ears is cute.


s: Ye noticed Polly,--the baby?  A month afore she was born,


s: Cicely--my old woman--was moody-like and forlorn;


s: Family man yourself, sir?  Well, you know what a woman be's.


s: Narvous she was, and restless,--said that she "couldn't stay."


s: Stay!--and the nearest woman seventeen miles away.


s: But a note was pinned on the blanket, which it said that she


s: But had gone to visit her neighbor,--seventeen miles away!


s: When and how she stampeded, I didn't wait for to see,


s: For out in the road, next minit, I started as wild as she;


s: Running first this way and that way, like a hound that is off the


s: I've had some mighty mean moments afore I kem to this spot,--


s: Lost on the Plains in '50, drownded almost and shot;


s: Was ra'ly as on-satis-factory as anything in my life.


s: "Cicely! Cicely! Cicely!" I called, and I held my breath,


s: And jest but a whisper of "Cicely!" down from them peaks of snow.


s: But up away to the east'ard, yaller and big and far,


s: I saw of a suddent rising the singlerist kind of star.


s: Big and yaller and dancing, it seemed to beckon to me:


s: Yaller and big and dancing, such as you never see:


s: Big and yaller and dancing,--I never saw such a star,


s: And I thought of them sharps in the Bible, and I went for it then


s: Over the brush and bowlders I stumbled and pushed ahead,


s: Keeping the star afore me, I went wherever it led.


s: It might hev been for an hour, when suddent and peart and nigh,


s: Out of the yearth afore me thar riz up a baby's cry.


s: But Cicely says you're a poet, and maybe you might, some day,


s: For that cheer was my old man's, Joe Simpson, and they don't make


s: Sit down,--ANYWHEER, where you like, Joe,--in that cheer, if you


s: But his smile it was pensive and childlike,


s: With the smile that was childlike and bland.


s: Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers,


s: We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor,"--


s: With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding,


s: And we found on his nails, which were taper,


s: What is frequent in tapers,--that's wax.


s: I reside at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;


s: I am not up to small deceit or any sinful games;


s: And I'll tell in simple language what I know about the row


s: That broke up our Society upon the Stanislow.


s: But first I would remark, that it is not a proper plan


s: For any scientific gent to whale his fellow-man,


s: And, if a member don't agree with his peculiar whim,


s: To lay for that same member for to "put a head" on him.


s: Now nothing could be finer or more beautiful to see


s: Than the first six months' proceedings of that same Society,


s: Till Brown of Calaveras brought a lot of fossil bones


s: That he found within a tunnel near the tenement of Jones.


s: Then Brown he read a paper, and he reconstructed there,


s: From those same bones, an animal that was extremely rare;


s: And Jones then asked the Chair for a suspension of the rules,


s: Then Brown he smiled a bitter smile, and said he was at fault,


s: It seemed he had been trespassing on Jones's family vault;


s: He was a most sarcastic man, this quiet Mr. Brown,


s: And on several occasions he had cleaned out the town.


s: Now I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent


s: To say another is an ass,--at least, to all intent;


s: Nor should the individual who happens to be meant


s: Reply by heaving rocks at him, to any great extent.


s: Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a point of order, when


s: A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen,


s: And he smiled a kind of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor,


s: For, in less time than I write it, every member did engage


s: In a warfare with the remnants of a palaeozoic age;


s: And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin,


s: Till the skull of an old mammoth caved the head of Thompson in.


s: And this is all I have to say of these improper games,


s: For I live at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;


s: And I've told in simple language what I know about the row


s: That broke up our Society upon the Stanislow.


s: Look at me--clar two hundred--and never read one in my life!


s: That's my opinion o' novels.  And ez to their lyin' round here,


s: And his daughter--well, she read novels, and that's what's the


s: Yet she was sweet on the Jedge, and stuck by him day and night,


s: Speakin' o' gals, d'ye mind that house ez you rise the hill,


s: A mile and a half from White's, and jist above Mattingly's mill?


s: Now she's what I call a gal--ez pretty and plump ez a quail;


s: "Robin Hood," "Leather-stocking" "Rob Roy,"--Oh, I tell you, the


s: And she worked me that shot-pouch up thar, which the man doesn't


s: And slippers--you see 'em down 'yer--ez would cradle an Injin's


s: And whenever I happened around, her face it was hid by a book,


s: And it warn't till the day she left that she give me ez much ez a


s: And this was the way it was.  It was night when I kem up here


s: To say to 'em all "good-by," for I reckoned to go for deer


s: But jist ez I passed the house next morning at dawn, some one,


s: Like a little waver o' mist got up on the hill with the sun;


s: Miss Mabel it was, alone--all wrapped in a mantle o' lace--


s: And I had my knee on its neck, and I jist was raisin' my knife,


s: And I caught her sharp by the waist, and held her a minit.  Well,


s: They spiled a decent gal ez might hev made some chap a wife,


s: And look at me!--clar two hundred--and never read one in my life!


s: When gold was flush and the boys were frisky,


s: For anything--maybe the price of whiskey.


s: Nothing of that sort, eh?  That's strange!


s: And saying, "Whar will you have it?" shot


s: But Jones didn't like Bob's way of stating.


s: Out of the "Babes in the Woods."  You know,


s: "Babes" was the name that we gave 'em, sir,


s: Two lean lads in their teens, and greener


s: Where they built their nest, and each day grew leaner.


s: As they passed to their work.  'Twas a worn-out claim,


s: And it paid them grub.  They could live without it,


s: In their tent, and forgetting all about it.


s: It lay in their big eyes' heavy hollows.


s: It was understood that no one should come


s: To their tent unawares, save the bees and swallows.


s: So they lived alone.  Until one warm night


s: I was sitting here at the tent-door,--so, sir!


s: I knew at once there was something wrong,


s: For his hand and his voice shook just a little,


s: And there isn't much you can fetch along


s: To make the sinews of Jack Hill brittle.


s: "Go warn the Babes!" he whispered, hoarse;


s: "Tell them I'm coming--to get and scurry;


s: For I've got a story that's bad,--and worse,


s: I've got a warrant: G-d d--n it, hurry!"


s: Too late! they had seen him cross the hill;


s: I ran to their tent and found them lying


s: Clasping the drug they had taken flying.


s: And there lay their secret cold and bare,


s: Their life, their trial--the old, old story!


s: For the sweet blue eyes and the golden hair


s: Was a WOMAN'S shame and a WOMAN'S glory.


s: The sun that visits their grave so lightly;


s: The mourning crickets that chirrup nightly.


s: These are our Babes in the Woods,--you've got,


s: It was noon by the sun; we had finished our game,


s: And was passin' remarks goin' back to our claim;


s: Jones was countin' his chips, Smith relievin' his mind


s: Of ideas that a "straight" should beat "three of a kind,"


s: When Johnson of Elko came gallopin' down,


s: With a look on his face 'twixt a grin and a frown,


s: And he calls, "Drop your shovels and face right about,


s: For them Chinees from Murphy's are cleanin' us out--


s: Then Jones--my own pardner--looks up with a sigh;


s: "It's your wash-bill," sez he, and I answers, "You lie!"


s: But afore he could draw or the others could arm,


s: Up tumbles the Bates boys, who heard the alarm.


s: And a yell from the hill-top and roar of a gong,


s: Mixed up with remarks like "Hi! yi! Chang-a-wong,"


s: And bombs, shells, and crackers, that crashed through the trees,


s: Revealed in their war-togs four hundred Chinees!


s: They were dressed in their best, but I grieve that that same


s: Was largely made up of our own, to their shame;


s: And my pardner's best shirt and his trousers were hung


s: On a spear, and above him were tauntingly swung;


s: While that beggar, Chey Lee, like a conjurer sat


s: Pullin' out eggs and chickens from Johnson's best hat;


s: And Bates's game rooster was part of their "loot,"


s: And all of Smith's pigs were skyugled to boot;


s: But the climax was reached and I like to have died


s: When my demijohn, empty, came down the hillside,--


s: Then we axed for a parley.  When out of the din


s: To the front comes a-rockin' that heathen, Ah Sin!


s: "You owe flowty dollee--me washee you camp,


s: You catchee my washee--me catchee no stamp;


s: One dollar hap dozen, me no catchee yet,


s: Now that flowty dollee--no hab?--how can get?


s: Me catchee you piggee--me sellee for cash,


s: It catchee me licee--you catchee no 'hash;'


s: Me belly good Sheliff--me lebbee when can,


s: "Are we men?" says Joe Johnson, "and list to this jaw,


s: Without process of warrant or color of law?


s: Are we men or--a-chew!"--here be gasped in his speech,


s: For a stink-pot had fallen just out of his reach.


s: "Shall we stand here as idle, and let Asia pour


s: Her barbaric hordes on this civilized shore?


s: Has the White Man no country?  Are we left in the lurch?


s: And likewise what's gone of the Established Church?


s: One man to four hundred is great odds, I own,


s: But this 'yer's a White Man--I plays it alone!"


s: And he sprang up the hillside--to stop him none dare--


s: Till a yell from the top told a "White Man was there!"


s: They fled, and he followed, but no matter where;


s: They fled to escape him,--the "White Man was there,"--


s: Till we missed first his voice on the pine-wooded slope,


s: And we knew for the heathen henceforth was no hope;


s: And the yells they grew fainter, when Petersen said,


s: But there was his trail, and the way that they came,


s: And yonder, no doubt, he was bagging his game.


s: When Jones drops his pickaxe, and Thompson says "Shoo!"


s: And both of 'em points to a cage of bamboo


s: Hanging down from a tree, with a label that swung


s: Conspicuous, with letters in some foreign tongue,


s: Which, when freely translated, the same did appear


s: Was the Chinese for saying, "A White Man is here!"


s: In his mouth was an opium pipe--which was why


s: He leered at us so with a drunken-like eye!


s: They had shaved off his eyebrows, and tacked on a cue,


s: They had painted his face of a coppery hue,


s: And rigged him all up in a heathenish suit,


s: Then softly departed, each man with his "loot."


s: At a mass meeting held up at Murphy's next day


s: There were seventeen speakers and each had his say;


s: There were twelve resolutions that instantly passed,


s: And each resolution was worse than the last;


s: There were fourteen petitions, which, granting the same,


s: Will determine what Governor Murphy's shall name;


s: And the man from our district that goes up next year


s: Goes up on one issue--that's patent and clear:


s: Green where the pines fade sullenly away.


s: Wonderful those olive depths! and wonderful, moreover--


s: The red dust that rises in a suffocating way.


s: Small is the soul that cannot soar above it,


s: Cannot but cling to its ever-kindred clay:


s: Better be yon bird, that seems to breathe and love it--


s: Doubtless a hawk or some other bird of prey.


s: That on our stomachs would comfortably stay;


s: Or were the fried ham a shade or two just thinner,


s: That must confront us at closing of the day:


s: Then might you sing like Theocritus or Virgil,


s: Then might we each make a metrical essay;


s: But verse just now--I must protest and urge--ill


s: Speed, Yuba Bill! oh, speed us to our dinner!


s: Speed to the sunset that beckons far away.


s: William of Yuba, O Son of Nimshi, hearken!


s: Check thy profanity, but not thy chariot's play.


s: Tell us, O William, before the shadows darken,


s: Where, and, oh! how we shall dine?  O William, say!


s: It ain't my fault, nor the Kumpeney's, I reckon,


s: Ye can't get ez square meal ez any on the Bay,


s: Up at you place, whar the senset 'pears to beckon--


s: Ez thet sharp allows in his airy sort o' way.


s: Thar woz a place wor yer hash ye might hev wrestled,


s: Warm in her breast all the morning sunshine nestled;


s: Red on her cheeks all the evening's sunshine lay.


s: Praise is but breath, O chariot compeller!


s: Yet of that hash we would bid you farther say.


s: Thar woz a snipe--like you, a fancy tourist--


s: Ran off the gal, and ruined jist the purist


s: Inside there's a lady!  Remember!  No affray!


s: Ef that man lives, the fault ain't mine or his'n.


s: Wait for the sunset that beckons far away,


s: Then--as you will!  But, meantime, friends, believe me,


s: Nowhere on earth lives a purer woman; nay,


s: If my perceptions do surely not deceive me,


s: As for the man--you see that blackened pine tree,


s: Up which the green vine creeps heavenward away!


s: He was that scarred trunk, and she the vine that sweetly


s: Clothed him with life again, and lifted--


s: It is the story of Thompson--of Thompson, the hero of Angels.


s: Frequently drunk was Thompson, but always polite to the stranger;


s: Great the mortality incident on that lightness and freedom.


s: Yet not happy or gay was Thompson, the hero of Angels;


s: Often spoke to himself in accents of anguish and sorrow,


s: "Why do I make the graves of the frivolous youth who in folly


s: "Why in my daily walks does the surgeon drop his left eyelid,


s: The undertaker smile, and the sculptor of gravestone marbles


s: Lean on his chisel and gaze?  I care not o'er much for attention;


s: So spake that pensive man--this Thompson, the hero of Angels,


s: "Why, indeed?" whispered the sage brush that bent 'neath his feet


s: Suddenly as the gray hawk swoops down on the barnyard, alighting


s: Where, pensively picking their corn, the favorite pullets are


s: So in that festive bar-room dropped Thompson, the hero of Angels,


s: Never a word he spoke; divesting himself of his garments,


s: Danced the war-dance of the playful yet truculent Modoc,


s: Uttered a single whoop, and then, in the accents of challenge,


s: Spake: "Oh, behold in me a Crested Jay Hawk of the mountain."


s: Then rose a pallid man--a man sick with fever and ague;


s: Small was he, and his step was tremulous, weak, and uncertain;


s: Slowly a Derringer drew, and covered the person of Thompson;


s: As on its native plains the kangaroo, startled by hunters,


s: Leaps with successive bounds, and hurries away to the thickets,


s: So leaped the Crested Hawk, and quietly hopping behind him


s: Ran, and occasionally shot, that Bald-headed Snipe of the Valley.


s: Vain at the festive bar still lingered the people of Angels,


s: Hearing afar in the woods the petulant pop of the pistol;


s: Never again returned the Crested Jay Hawk of the mountains,


s: Never again was seen the Bald-headed Snipe of the Valley.


s: Yet in the hamlet of Angels, when truculent speeches are uttered,


s: Maidens and men in their prime recall the last hero of Angels,


s: Think of and vainly regret the Bald-headed Snipe of the Valley!


s: We checked our pace, the red road sharply rounding;


s: Of the dark olive depths of pines resounding


s: Or where half-way the mountain side was furrowed


s: Or some abandoned tunnel dimly burrowed,--


s: We looked in silence down across the distant


s: A silence broken by the guide's consistent


s: "Walker of Murphy's blew a hole through Peters


s: Then up and dusted out of South Hornitos


s: "We ran him out of Strong's, and up through Eden,


s: And up this canyon (Peters' brother leadin'),


s: "He fou't us game: somehow I disremember


s: Some say 'twas wadding, some a scattered ember


s: "But in one minute all the hill below him


s: Guardin' the crest, Sam Clark and I called to him,


s: "He made no sign: the fires of hell were round him,


s: We sat and waited, but we never found him;


s: "And then--you see that rock that's grown so bristly


s: Suthin crep' out: it might hev been a grizzly


s: "Suthin that howled, and gnashed its teeth, and shouted


s: Suthin that sprang into the depths about it,


s: "That's all!  Well, yes, it does look rather risky,


s: And dizzy looking down.  A drop of whiskey


s: In short, sir, "the belle of the season"


s: They say he'll be rich,--when he grows up,--


s: "And aren't they a change to the ditches


s: And the dance that we had on "The Fork;"


s: Of the candles that shed their soft lustre


s: Of the steps that we took to one fiddle,


s: Of that ride--that to me was the rarest;


s: Well, well, it's all past; yet it's funny


s: Just to dance with old Folinsbee's daughter,


s: But goodness! what nonsense I'm writing!


s: Good-night!--here's the end of my paper;


s: And are poor, dearest Joe, and all that,


s: That my heart's somewhere there in the ditches,


s: Which the same I would term as a friend,--


s: Though his health it were vain to call hearty,


s: And there's something gone wrong with his lung,--


s: I should write what he runs off his tongue.


s: First, he says, Miss, he's read through your letter


s: To the end,--and "the end came too soon;"


s: That a "slight illness kept him your debtor,"


s: (Which for weeks he was wild as a loon);


s: That "his spirits are buoyant as yours is;"


s: That with you, Miss, he "challenges Fate,"


s: And he says "that the mountains are fairer


s: That each rock "holds a wealth that is rarer


s: (Which are words he would put in these pages,


s: Though the claim not, at date, paying wages,


s: And the ride, and the gate, and the vow,


s: And the rose that you gave him,--that very


s: (Which his blanket he's kicked on his trunk, Miss,


s: And his language to me from his bunk, Miss,


s: That he knows--(which this dodging of pillows


s: And the same you will pardon)--he knows, Miss,


s: Yet, were HE lying under the snows, Miss,


s: And "you'll still think of him in your pleasures,


s: In your brief twilight dreams of the past;


s: In this green laurel spray that he treasures,--


s: It was plucked where your parting was last;


s: In this specimen,--but a small trifle,--


s: (Which, the truth not to wickedly stifle,


s: Was his last week's "clean up,"--and HIS ALL.)


s: He's asleep, which the same might seem strange, Miss,


s: That I raised his last dose, for a change, Miss,


s: But he lies there quite peaceful and pensive.


s: Which my language, although comprehensive,


s: You would please to procure for me, GAME;


s: And send per express to the Flat, Miss,--


s: For they say York is famed for the breed,


s: Which, though words of deceit may be that, Miss,


s: Here's my pile, which it's six hundred dollars,


s: So you're back from your travels, old fellow,


s: 'Twas just like your romance, old fellow;


s: But it's jolly to see you, old fellow,--


s: As was worked off on William, my pardner,


s: And he says to me, "Truthful, how goes it?"


s: And he says, "You mistake; this poor Injin


s: With a peaceful-like smile on his features,


s: Was one half fact, and t'other half whim!


s: Too late! for there came a "thud."  Jim cursed


s: As the fireman, there in the cab with him,


s: Back, but they never found house nor man,--


s: Would you believe it! the very next night


s: Up rose that house in the moonlight white,


s: Down goes the brake and the rest encore;


s: Occurred, till folks swore Jim was cracked.


s: Humph! let me see; it's a year now, 'most,


s: That I met Jim, East, and says, "How's your ghost?"


s: "What should I meet, the first trip out,


s: And the selfsame man!  'Well,' says I, 'I guess


s: It's time to stop this 'yer foolishness.'


s: From my fireman, that jest broke my dream:


s: "'You've killed somebody!'  Says I, 'Not much!


s: I've been thar often, and thar ain't no such,


s: Now I call that meanness!"  That's all Jim said.


s: Know me next time when you see me, won't you, old smarty?


s: Oh, I mean YOU, old figger-head,--just the same party!


s: Take out your pensivil, d--n you; sharpen it, do!


s: Any complaints to make?  Lots of 'em--one of 'em's YOU.


s: You! who are YOU, anyhow, goin' round in that sneakin' way?