s: As he gazed on his brother, while tears trickled fast,


s: When he uttered a loud and a heart-rending wail,


s: For a butcher, in blue, had caught hold of his tail,


s: By which, and one ear, while Jack squeaked for his mother,


s: Away he was dragged, to be slain, like his brother.


s: The sun rose, next morning, and shed its first gleam,


s: On exact the same spot where his brother had been;


s: But there, in the same place, extended and dead,


s: Hung poor master Jacky, without any head.


s: The head, too, hung near,--but without its fine wig,


s: And was now to be seen as the head of a pig.


s: Many times has the butcher thought of his good luck,


s: But he'll never again capture such a gay buck.


s: If pigs will walk upright, and strut with fine canes,


s: Stalking in towns, 'stead of roaming in lanes,


s: Misfortunes they'll meet with, no doubt, such as Jack's,


s: Getting shots through their ears, and kicks on their backs.


s: And while smiling at Piggy, think, too, of the woes


s: That attend, more or less, every wanderer who goes,


s: Leaving behind him his true friends, to roam,


s: In search of those pleasures found only at home.


s: In a certain farm-yard, not a hundred miles off,


s: Some pigs were enjoying themselves at a trough;


s: They were having their dinner, or if 'twere too soon,


s: It might be their breakfast,--it scarcely was noon,


s: And, as pigs of fashion, their ears it might shock


s: To talk about dining before twelve o'clock.


s: Well,--let us suppose it was breakfast,--and they


s: With their delicate noses were grubbing away,


s: When up came their master, whose looks, to my thinking,


s: Betokened a love for good eating and drinking;


s: And 'tis not unlikely the pigs thought so too,


s: For they never so much as said "How do you do?"


s: But went on in silence to finish their feeding,


s: Which certainly was not a mark of good breeding;


s: But as they thus acted, I must tell the truth,


s: Though I'd rather my pigs had not been so uncouth.


s: However, the master looked on at his leisure,


s: And seemed to regard them with infinite pleasure,


s: And no ill intent,--'till he happened to see


s: One fat little lady pig, white as could be.


s: Then his mouth fairly watered, as he thought how nice,


s: With sage, onion, and apple sauce, would be a slice


s: Of that nice tempting piggy,--so, calling to Joe,


s: Who also was fond of roast pork, you must know,


s: Said, "Joe, you had better that little pig kill,


s: Before she gets bigger." Said Joe, "Sir, I will."


s: The pigs heard this order with great consternation,


s: And grunted, quite clearly, their disapprobation;


s: But master and man took no heed of their sorrow,


s: And Miss was to die the day after the morrow.


s: The rest, who were all in her fate interested,


s: Now offered such comfort as pity suggested:


s: "They won't hurt you much," simpered one tender swain,


s: "I've heard that this killing is scarce any pain;


s: Pray take some more wash, and this cabbage-stalk bite."


s: "No, thank you," said Piggy, "I've no appetite."


s: At night, when she laid herself down in her sty,


s: In vain she attempted to close her bright eye:


s: Not a wink could she get through the whole of the night,


s: And wept till she made herself look like a fright.


s: She turned first on one side, and then on the other,


s: And two or three times thought of waking her mother;


s: But this was not easy, for pigs are sound sleepers,


s: And not very willing to open their peepers.


s: At last morning dawned, and mamma pig awoke,


s: When thus poor Miss Piggy with much spirit spoke:


s: "Dear mother, it certainly is a great pity,


s: To kill me while I'm so young and so pretty;


s: But if they can have such bad taste as to do it,


s: I really don't see why I should submit to it.


s: No one in their senses, I think, would remain


s: When they know they are soon to be cruelly slain;


s: There are more sties than this in the world, I dare say,


s: So I think I had better at once run away."


s: "Alas! my dear child," said her mother, "I fear


s: You may as well make up your mind to stay here,


s: For 'tis likely the very first person you meet,


s: Would carry you off, and then kill you to eat.


s: Wherever you go, there is just the same danger;


s: You had better be killed by a friend, than a stranger.


s: To tell you the truth, I am sadly afraid,


s: It is for man's eating that we pigs are made.


s: The thought is not pleasant, yet, what we can't cure,


s: As the old proverb says, we must learn to endure."


s: Then a grave-looking pig, of respectable age,


s: Who was always considered remarkably sage,


s: Respecting the orders we yesterday heard.


s: It seems that Miss does not approve of the plan


s: Proposed by our master to Joseph, his man;


s: Though such we all come to, at one time or other:


s: Last week I thus lost my affectionate brother,


s: And next week, perhaps, I myself may be taken,


s: For this is the season for making of bacon;


s: Cut off in her prime,--and we all must agree


s: It is very unpleasant,--there can be no doubt of it,--


s: I've thought of a way by which she may get out of it:


s: Now, if she had not been so plump and good looking,


s: They would never have fancied her ready for cooking;


s: But if she'd get rid of these charms, I am thinking,


s: By living awhile without eating or drinking,


s: And hides herself up in the loft, 'mongst the hay,


s: They'll think that somebody has stole her away.


s: And when she comes back, she will be so much thinner,


s: Depend on't they'll no longer want her for dinner."


s: Mamma thought this scheme was uncommonly clever,


s: But her daughter indignantly answered, "No, never!


s: What! lose all my beauty? I'd much rather die for it;


s: If that's my last chance, I am sure I shan't try for it;


s: To be called thin and ugly,--I never could bear;--


s: The thought makes me nervous. I vow and declare.


s: I should be neglected, and not have a lover:


s: I'd rather be killed, half a dozen times over.


s: 'Tis a comfort to know, since my life I'm not able


s: To save, I shall look very well on the table."


s: Poor Piggy was killed on the very next day,


s: And all who'd the pleasure of tasting her, say


s: That she was so nice, they should never forget her,


s: The Queen and Prince Consort could not have a better.


s: _First Fifteen Impressions published in Canada


s: This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain:


s: Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core;


s: Swift as the panther in triumph, fierce as the bear in defeat,


s: Sired of a bulldog parent, steeled in the furnace heat.


s: Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones;


s: Them will I take to my bosom, them will I call my sons;


s: Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat;


s: "Wild and wide are my borders, stern as death is my sway;


s: Hugging my mighty treasure, waiting for man to come:


s: One by one I weeded them out, for all that I sought was--Men.


s: One by one I dismayed them, frighting them sore with my glooms;


s: One by one I betrayed them unto my manifold dooms.


s: Drowned them like rats in my rivers, starved them like curs on my


s: Frozen stiff in the ice pack, brittle and bent like a bow;


s: Going outside with an escort, raving with lips all afoam;


s: Writing a cheque for a million, drivelling feebly of home;


s: Lost like a louse in the burning ... or else in tented town


s: Seeking a drunkard's solace, sinking and sinking down;


s: Steeped in the slime at the bottom, dead to a decent world,


s: Lost 'mid the human flotsam, far on the frontier hurled;


s: Plague-spots, yet tools of my purpose, so natheless I suffer them


s: Unto its ultimate issue, winning me honour, not shame;


s: Searching my uttermost valleys, fighting each step as they go,


s: Shooting the wrath of my rapids, scaling my ramparts of snow;


s: Ripping the guts of my mountains, looting the beds of my creeks,


s: Them will I take to my bosom, and speak as a mother speaks.


s: I am the land that listens, I am the land that broods;


s: Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and woods.


s: Long have I waited lonely, shunned as a thing accurst,


s: Monstrous, moody, pathetic, the last of the lands and the first;


s: Visioning camp-fires at twilight, sad with a longing forlorn,


s: Feeling my womb o'er-pregnant with the seed of cities unborn.


s: Wild and wide are my borders, stern as death is my sway,


s: "Lofty I stand from each sister land, patient and wearily wise,


s: When men shall not rape my riches, and curse me and go away;


s: Making a bawd of my bounty, fouling the hand that gave--


s: Dreaming of men who will bless me, of women esteeming me good,


s: Of children born in my borders, of radiant motherhood;


s: Of cities leaping to stature, of fame like a flag unfurled,


s: As I pour the tide of my riches in the eager lap of the world."


s: This is the Law of the Yukon, that only the Strong shall thrive;


s: That surely the Weak shall perish, and only the Fit survive.


s: "I'm one of the Arctic brotherhood, I'm an old-time pioneer.


s: I've followed my dreams by its thousand streams, I've toiled and


s: Each one a brand of this devil's land, where I've played and I've


s: "This mining is only a gamble, the worst is as good as the best;


s: With Cormack, Ladue and Macdonald--O God! but it's hell to think


s: Of the thousands and thousands I've squandered on cards and women


s: Till sudden there came a whisper, and it maddened us every man,


s: And I got in on Bonanza before the big rush began.


s: (If God made me in His likeness, sure He let the devil inside.)


s: But we all were mad, both the good and the bad, and as for the


s: "Money was just like dirt there, easy to get and to spend.


s: "Twenty years in the Yukon, struggling along its creeks;


s: Roaming its giant valleys, scaling its god-like peaks;


s: Bathed in its fiery sunsets, fighting its fiendish cold,


s: Twenty years in the Yukon ... twenty years--and I'm old.


s: "... Come, Kit, your pony is saddled. I'm waiting, dear, in the


s: ... Minnie, you devil, I'll kill you if you skip with that flossy


s: ... How much does it go to the pan, Bill?... play up, School, and


s: ... Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name ..."


s: And the hunger-maddened malamutes had torn him flesh from bone._


s: Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,


s: No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?)


s: From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it,


s: Maybe: but there's some as would trade it


s: You come to get rich (damned good reason),


s: It grips you like some kinds of sinning;


s: I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow


s: Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,


s: And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;


s: And I've thought that I surely was dreaming,


s: With the peace o' the world piled on top.


s: The strong life that never knows harness;


s: The freshness, the freedom, the farness--


s: The winter! the brightness that blinds you,


s: The cold fear that follows and finds you,


s: The woods where the weird shadows slant;


s: The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,


s: There's a land where the mountains are nameless,


s: There are lives that are erring and aimless,


s: There are hardships that nobody reckons;


s: There's a land--oh, it beckons and beckons,


s: I'll fight--and you bet it's no sham-fight;


s: And it's better than this by a damsite--


s: There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;


s: It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,


s: It's the forests where silence has lease;


s: It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,


s: It's the stillness that fills me with peace.


s: Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?


s: Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sage-brush desolation,


s: The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?


s: Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,


s: And learned to know the desert's little ways?


s: Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig


s: (Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)


s: Have you suffered, starved, and triumphed grovelled, down, yet


s: Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?


s: Have you seen God in His splendours, heard the text that nature


s: (You'll never hear it in the family pew.)


s: They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their


s: They have soaked you in convention through and through;


s: Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;


s: _Ye who know the Lone Trail fain would follow it,


s: Though it lead to glory or the darkness of the pit.


s: Ye who take the Lone Trail, bid your love good-bye;


s: The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow till you die._


s: And you gnaw your belt in the anguish of hunger-goaded desire.


s: And sometimes it leads to the Southland, to the swamp where the


s: Often it leads to the dead-pit; always it leads to pain;


s: By your bones they will follow behind you, till the ways of the


s: _Bid good-bye to sweetheart, bid good-bye to friend;


s: The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow to the end.


s: Tarry not, and fear not, chosen of the true;


s: Lover of the Lone Trail, the Lone Trail waits for you._


s: There where the mighty mountains bare their fangs unto the moon;


s: And to-night, O God of the trails untrod, how it whines in my


s: I have flouted the Wild. I have followed its lure, fearless,


s: Even as lean wolf-dog goes down will I go down and die.


s: But the stars throng out in their glory,


s: Where a star or a soul is a part of the whole,


s: When the scroll of the Lord is unfurled,


s: We sleep in the sleep of ages, the bleak, barbarian pines;


s: The grey moss drapes us like sages, and closer we lock our lines,


s: On the flanks of the storm-gored ridges are our black battalions


s: To us was the Northland given, ours to stronghold and defend;


s: Ours till the world be riven in the crash of the utter end.


s: Ours through the twilight ages of weary glacier-creep.


s: Wind of the East, wind of the West, wandering to and fro,


s: From the white foam-fringe where the breakers cringe to the peaks


s: We climb, and we peer in the crag-locked mere that gleams like a


s: Sun, moon and stars, give answer; shall we not staunchly stand


s: Even as now, forever, wards of the wilder strand,


s: Sentinels of the stillness, lords of the last lone land!


s: _There was a woman, and she was wise; woefully wise was she;


s: There is no hope for such as I, on earth nor yet in Heaven;


s: Unloved I live, unloved I die, unpitied, unforgiven;


s: A loathèd jade I ply my trade, unhallowed and unshriven.


s: With overhead a lamp of red I sit me down and wait.


s: Until they come, the nightly scum, with drunken eyes aflame;


s: For life is not the thing we thought, and not the thing we plan;


s: And woman in a bitter world must do the best she can;


s: Must serve his need and ever feed the flame of his desire;


s: Though be she loved for love alone, or be she loved for hire;


s: For every man since life began is tainted with the mire.


s: And though you know he love you so, and set you on love's throne,


s: And 'tis not wise to love too well, and this all women know.


s: Wherefore, the wolf-pack having gorged upon the lamb, their prey,


s: With velvet paws and flensing claws, a tigress roused to slay.


s: One who in youth sought truest truth, and found a devil's lies;


s: A symbol of the sin of man, a human sacrifice:


s: Yet shall I blame on man the shame? Could it be otherwise?


s: Was I not born to walk in scorn where others walk in pride?


s: The Maker marred, and evil-starred I drift upon His tide;


s: And He alone shall judge His own, so I His judgment bide.


s: _Fate has written a tragedy; its name is "The Human Heart."


s: The theatre is the House of Life, Woman the mummer's part:


s: There's a cry from out the Loneliness--Oh, listen, Honey, listen!


s: You're a-sobbing in your sleep, dear, and your lashes, how they


s: Do you hear the Little Voices all a-begging me to go?


s: They miss my little camp-fires, ever brightly, bravely gleaming


s: In the womb of desolation where was never man before;


s: As comradeless I sought them, lion-hearted, loving, dreaming;


s: And they hailed me as a comrade, and they loved me evermore.


s: And now they're all a-crying, and it's no use me denying:


s: The spell of them is on me and I'm helpless as a child;


s: My heart is aching, aching, but I hear them sleeping, waking;


s: It's the Lure of Little Voices, it's the mandate of the Wild.


s: I'm afraid to tell you, Honey, I can take no bitter leaving;


s: But softly in the sleep-time from your love I'll steal away.


s: Look at my face, toil-furrowed; look at my calloused hands;


s: Master, I've done Thy bidding, wrought in Thy many lands--


s: Wrought for the little masters, big-bellied they be, and rich;


s: And now, Big Master, I'm broken and bent and twisted and scarred,


s: Thou knowest my sins are many, and often I've played the fool--


s: Whiskey and cards and women, they made me the devil's tool.


s: I was just like a child with money: I flung it away with a curse,


s: Then back to the woods repentant, back to the mill or the mine,


s: I, the worker of workers, everything in my line.


s: Everything hard but headwork (I'd no more brains than a kid),


s: A brute with brute strength to labour, doing as I was bid;


s: Living in camps with men-folk, a lonely and loveless life;


s: Never knew kiss of sweetheart, never caress of wife.


s: Down in the ditch building o'er me palaces fairer than dreams;


s: Boring the rock to the ore-bed, driving the road through the fen,


s: Master, I've filled my contract, wrought in Thy many lands;


s: Not by my sins wilt Thou judge me, but by the work of my hands.


s: Master, I've done Thy bidding, and the light is low in the west,


s: If you're up against a bruiser and you're getting knocked about--


s: Don't let him see you're funking, let him know with every clout,


s: This life's a bally battle, and the same advice holds true,


s: If you're up against it badly, then it's only one on you,


s: Rise up in the morning with the will that, smooth or rough,


s: Sink to sleep at midnight, and although you're feeling tough,


s: Your trouble is that you don't know when you have had enough--


s: If Fate should down you, just get up and take another cuff;


s: You may bank on it that there is no philosophy like bluff


s: A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;


s: The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;


s: Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,


s: He looked like a man with a foot in the grave, and scarcely the


s: Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks


s: But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan


s: There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard


s: Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he'd do,


s: And I turned my head--and there watching him was the lady that's


s: But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman's love;


s: A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true--


s: (God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge,--the lady that's


s: That some one had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a


s: 'Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair, and it thrilled you


s: The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a


s: I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two--


s: _There are strange things done in the midnight sun


s: The Arctic trails have their secret tales


s: The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,


s: Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge


s: Though he'd often say in his homely way that he'd "sooner live in


s: On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.


s: If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze, till sometimes we


s: It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.


s: "It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled


s: He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in


s: And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.


s: But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last


s: Howled out their woes to the homeless snows--O God! how I loathed


s: And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;


s: Then, "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."


s: Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;


s: It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I


s: I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;


s: I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked," ... then the door I


s: And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the


s: It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and


s: _There are strange things done in the midnight sun


s: The Arctic trails have their secret tales


s: The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,


s: Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge


s: She laughed at my picture, and went away.


s: And she hangs in the church of Saint Hilaire,


s: And one who lingers in the sunshine there;


s: She is than white-stoled lily far more fair,


s: And oh, her eyes are heaven-lit with dream.


s: I know a garret, cold and dark and drear,


s: And one who toils and toils with tireless pen,


s: Until his brave, sad eyes grow weary--then


s: He seeks the stars, pale, silent as a seer.


s: And ah, it's strange, for desolate and dim


s: Between these two there rolls an ocean wide;


s: And she is in the garret there with him.


s: It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,


s: With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want;


s: To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass,


s: Smoke a choice cigar, and sip the wealthy water in your glass;


s: It's bully in a high-toned joint to eat and drink your fill,


s: It's great to go out every night on fun or pleasure bent,


s: To wear your glad rags always, and to never save a cent;


s: To drift along regardless, have a good time every trip;


s: To hit the high spots sometimes, and to let your chances slip;


s: To know you're acting foolish, yet to go on fooling still,


s: Time has got a little bill--get wise while yet you may,


s: For the debit side's increasing in a most alarming way;


s: So eat, drink, and be merry, have a good time if you will,


s: But God help you when the time comes, and you


s: One said: Thy life is thine to make or mar,


s: It lies with thee--the choice is thine, is thine,


s: I answer Her: The choice is mine--ah, no!


s: We all were made or marred long, long ago.


s: The parts are written: hear the super wail:


s: "Who is stage-managing this cosmic show?"


s: Blind fools of fate, and slaves of circumstance,


s: Life is a fiddler, and we all must dance.


s: From gloom where mocks that will-o'-wisp, Freewill,


s: I heard a voice cry: "Say, give us a chance."


s: Chance! Oh, there is no chance. The scene is set.


s: Up with the curtain! Man, the marionette,


s: Resumes his part. The gods will work the wires.


s: They've got it all down fine, you bet, you bet!


s: It's all decreed: the mighty earthquake crash;


s: The countless constellations' wheel and flash;


s: The rise and fall of empires, war's red tide,


s: There's no haphazard in this world of ours:


s: Cause and effect are grim, relentless powers.


s: They rule the world. (A king was shot last night.


s: Last night I held the joker and both bowers.)


s: From out the mesh of fate our heads we thrust.


s: We can't do what we would, but what we must.


s: (Consoling thought, when you've been on a "bust.")


s: Hark to the song where spheral voices blend:


s: "There's no beginning, never will be end."


s: It makes us nutty; hang the astral chimes!


s: The table's spread; come, let us dine, my friend.


s: There's a race of men that don't fit in,


s: So they break the hearts of kith and kin,


s: They range the field and they rove the flood,


s: If they just went straight they might go far;


s: But they're always tired of the things that are,


s: They say: "Could I find my proper groove,


s: So they chop and change, and each fresh move


s: And each forgets, as he strips and runs,


s: And each forgets that his youth has fled,


s: Till he stands one day with a hope that's dead


s: He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;


s: He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;


s: O'er the dark pines she sees the silver moon,


s: And soothing sweet she hears the mellow tune


s: Of cow-bells jangled in the fields afar.


s: Quite listless, for her daily stent is done,


s: She stands, sad exile, at her rose-wreathed door,


s: That goes to gild the land she'll see no more.


s: The grave, gaunt pines imprison her sad gaze,


s: All still the sky and darkling drearily;


s: She feels the chilly breath of dear, dead days


s: The curtains stir as with an ancient pain;


s: Her old piano gleams from out the gloom,


s: And waits and waits her tender touch in vain.


s: But now her hands like moonlight brush the keys


s: And now she sings. (O singer in the gloom,


s: Here in the Farness where we few have room


s: Unshamed to show our love and tenderness,


s: Our hearts will echo, till they beat no more,


s: And stretched in deathless love to England's shore,


s: Some day she'll hearken and she'll understand.)


s: She thinks of how she held a people fast


s: In thrall, and gleaned the triumphs of a day.


s: She sees herself a queen of song once more;


s: She sees lips part in rapture, eyes agleam;


s: She sings as never once she sang before.


s: She sings a wild, sweet song that throbs with pain,


s: The added pain of life that transcends art,


s: A song of home, a deep, celestial strain,


s: The glorious swan-song of a dying heart.


s: A lame tramp comes along the railway track,


s: A grizzled dog whose day is nearly done:


s: He passes, pauses, then comes slowly back


s: She sings--her golden voice is passion-fraught


s: As when she charmed a thousand eager ears;


s: He listens trembling, and she knows it not,


s: And down his hollow cheeks roll bitter tears.


s: There is no sound, the stars are all alight--


s: There's a four-pronged buck a-swinging in the shadow of my cabin,


s: But I tracked it by the river, and I trailed it in the cover,


s: And I killed it on the mountain miles away.


s: Now I've had my lazy supper, and the level sun is gleaming


s: On the water where the silver salmon play;


s: And I light my little corn-cob, and I linger softly dreaming,


s: In the twilight, of a land that's far away.


s: Far away, so faint and far, is flaming London, fevered Paris,


s: That I fancy I have gained another star;


s: Far away the din and hurry, far away the sin and worry,


s: Far away--God knows they cannot be too far.


s: Starved my soul and gone to business every day.


s: I can couch me deep in clover, I can listen to the story


s: And the frozen snow betrays the panther's track,


s: And the robin greets the dayspring with the rapture of a lover,


s: For I know I'd just be longing for the little old log cabin,


s: With the morning-glory clinging to the door,


s: Till I loathed the city places, cursed the care on all the faces,


s: So send me far from Lombard Street, and write me down a failure;


s: Put a little in my purse and leave me free.


s: Say: "He turned from Fortune's offering to follow up a pale lure,


s: I am one of you no longer: by the trails my feet have broken,


s: The dizzy peaks I've scaled, the camp-fire's glow,


s: By the lonely seas I've sailed in--yea, the final word is spoken,


s: And I know at the dawn she'll come reeling home with the bottles,


s: One for herself to drown her shame, and two big bottles for me,


s: To make me forget the thing I am and the man I used to be.


s: Oh, I have guarded my secret well! And who would dream as I speak


s: I could roll to bed with a Latin phrase, and rise with a verse of


s: But I'm not dead yet; though with half a lung there isn't time to


s: And I hope that the year will see me out, and, thank God, no one


s: She will come with the dawn, and the dawn is near; I can see its


s: Like a corpse-light seen through a frosty pane in a night of want


s: And yonder she comes, by the bleak bull-pines, swift staggering


s: When a man gits on his uppers in a hard-pan sort of town,


s: An' he ain't got nothin' comin', an' he can't afford ter eat,


s: An' he's in a fix fer lodgin', an' he wanders up an' down,


s: An' you'd fancy he'd been boozin', he's so locoed 'bout the feet;


s: An' his face is peaked an' grey-like, an' his heart gits down an'


s: Then he's apt ter git a-thinkin' an' a-wishin' he was back


s: In the little ol' log cabin in the shadder of the pines.


s: When he's on the blazin' desert, an' his canteen's sprung a leak,


s: Then he's like ter hev' a vision, as he settles down ter die,


s: Of the little ol' log cabin an' the roses an' the vines.


s: Oh, the little ol' log cabin, it's a solemn shinin' mark


s: When a feller gits ter sinnin', an' a-goin' ter the wall,


s: An' folks don't understand him, an' he's gropin' in the dark,


s: An' he's sick of bein' cursed at, an' he's longin' fer his call:


s: When the sun of life's a-sinkin' you can see it 'way above,


s: On the hill from out the shadder in a glory 'gin the sky,


s: An' never leave its shelter, an' forget, an' love, an' rest.


s: If you leave the gloom of London and you seek a glowing land,


s: Where all except the flag is strange and new,


s: For he's your younger brother, the one you sent away,


s: Because there wasn't room for him at home;


s: And now he's quite contented, and he's glad he didn't stay,


s: And he's building Britain's greatness o'er the foam.


s: When the giant herd is moving at the rising of the sun,


s: And the prairie is lit with rose and gold;


s: And the camp is all a-bustle, and the busy day's begun,


s: And when the night-winds whisper, and camp-fires flicker out,


s: He is sleeping like a child beneath the stars.


s: When the wattle-blooms are drooping in the sombre she-oak glade,


s: And the breathless land is lying in a swoon,


s: And he hears the bell-bird chime the Austral noon.


s: The parakeets are silent in the gum-tree by the creek;


s: The ferny grove is sunshine-steeped and still;


s: But the dew will gem the myrtle in the twilight ere he seek


s: Around the purple, vine-clad slope the argent river dreams;


s: The roses almost hide the house from view;


s: A snow-peak of the Winterberg in crimson splendour gleams;


s: He seeks the lily-scented dusk beneath the orange-tree:


s: His pipe in silence glows and fades and glows,


s: And then two little maids come out and climb upon his knee,


s: He sees his white sheep dapple o'er the green New Zealand plain,


s: And where Vancouver's shaggy ramparts frown,


s: You will find him toiling, toiling, in the south or in the west,


s: A child of nature, fearless, frank and free;


s: You've a brother in the Army, you've another in the Church;


s: You've had the pick of everything and left him in the lurch;


s: I'm sure his life is happy, and he doesn't envy yours;


s: I know he loves the land his pluck has won;


s: And I fancy in the years unborn, while England's fame endures,


s: She will come to bless with pride--the Younger Son.


s: The cruel war was over--oh, the triumph was so sweet!


s: We watched the troops returning, through our tears;


s: And you scarce could see the house-tops for the flags that flew


s: The bells were pealing madly to the sky;


s: And every one was shouting for the Soldiers of the Queen,


s: And then there came a shadow, swift and sudden, dark and drear;


s: The bells were silent, not an echo stirred.


s: The flags were drooping sullenly, the men forgot to cheer;


s: The sky grew darker, darker, till from out the gloomy rack


s: There came a voice that checked the heart with dread:


s: "Tear down, tear down your bunting now, and hang up sable black;


s: They are coming--it's the Army of the Dead."


s: Oh, the clammy brow of anguish! the livid, foam-flecked lips!


s: "They left us on the veldt-side, but we felt we couldn't stop,


s: On this, our England's crowning festal day;


s: We're the men of Magersfontein, we're the men of Spion Kop,


s: You owe us. Long and heavy is the score.


s: Then cheer us for our glory now, and cheer us for our pain,


s: And cheer us as ye never cheered before."


s: The folks were white and stricken, and each tongue seemed weighed


s: Each heart was clutched in hollow hand of ice;


s: And every eye was staring at the horror of the dead,


s: They were coming in their thousands--oh, would they never cease!


s: I closed my eyes, and then--it was a dream.


s: A thousand flags were flaming where the sky and city meet;


s: A thousand bells were thundering the joy.


s: O God, in Thy great mercy, let us nevermore forget


s: The graves they left behind, the bitter graves.


s: A pistol-shot rings round and round the world:


s: A last defiance to dark Death is hurled,


s: A last wild challenge shocks the sunlit skies.


s: Alone he falls with wide, wan, woeful eyes:


s: Eyes that could smile at death--could not face shame.


s: In the bright sunshine of that Paris day;


s: Saw in his thought the awful hand of doom;


s: Tried in his heart, his weary heart, to pray:


s: "O God! who made me, give me strength to face


s: The spectre of this bitter, black disgrace."


s: The burn brawls darkly down the shaggy glen,


s: The bee-kissed heather blooms around the door;


s: He hears the pibroch, grips the red claymore,


s: Runs with the Fiery Cross a clansman true,


s: Sworn kinsman of Rob Roy and Roderick Dhu.


s: Eating his heart out with a wild desire,


s: One day, behind his counter trim and neat,


s: He hears a sound that sets his brain afire--


s: The Highlanders are marching down the street.


s: Oh, how the pipes shrill out, the mad drums beat!


s: "On to the gates of Hell, my Gordons gay!"


s: He sees the sullen pass, high-crowned with snow,


s: Where Afghans cower with eyes of gleaming hate.


s: He hurls himself against the hidden foe.


s: They try to rally--ah, too late, too late!


s: Again, defenceless, with fierce eyes that wait


s: For death, he stands, like baited bull at bay,


s: And flouts the Boers, that mad Majuba day.


s: Blood-slaked and rapine swept. He seems to stand


s: A King is proud, and princes call him friend,


s: And glory crowns his life--and now the end.


s: The awful end. His eyes are dark with doom;


s: He hears the shrapnel shrieking overhead:


s: He sees the ravaged ranks, the flame-stabbed gloom.


s: Oh, to have fallen! the battle-field his bed,


s: With Wauchope and his glorious brother-dead.


s: Why was he saved for this, for this? And now


s: In many a Highland home, framed with rude art,


s: You'll find his portrait, rough-hewn, stern and square:


s: It's graven in the Fuyam fellah's heart;


s: The Ghurka reads it at his evening prayer;


s: The raw lands know it, where the fierce suns glare;


s: The Dervish fears it. Honour to his name,


s: Who holds aloft the shield of England's fame.


s: Mourn for our hero, men of Northern race!


s: His sword was keen. He laughed death in the face,


s: And struck, for Empire's sake, a giant blow.


s: His arm was strong. Ah! well they learnt, the foe.


s: Will ring for aye. All else ... let us forget.


s: An angel was tired of heaven, as he lounged in the golden street;


s: So the Master stooped in His pity, and gave him a pass to go,


s: The sexless singers of heaven chanted a fond farewell,


s: Never was seen such an angel: eyes of a heavenly blue,


s: Features that shamed Apollo, hair of a golden hue;


s: The women simply adored him, his lips were like Cupid's bow;


s: But he never ventured to use them--and so they voted him slow.


s: Till at last there came One Woman, a marvel of loveliness,


s: And she whispered to him: "Do you love me?" And he answered that


s: The ancient, outworn, puritanic traditions of Right and Wrong."


s: "The ancient, outworn, puritanic traditions of Right and Wrong."


s: The stagnation of a bank we couldn't stand;


s: For our riot blood was surging, and we didn't need much urging


s: To excitements and excesses that are banned.


s: So we took to wine and drink and other things,


s: And the devil in us struggled to be free;


s: Till our friends rose up in wrath, and they pointed out the path,


s: Oh, they shook us off and shipped us o'er the foam,


s: To the larger lands that lure a man to roam;


s: And we bade goodbye for evermore to home.


s: And some of us are climbing on the peak,


s: And some of us are camping on the plain;


s: By pine and palm you'll find us, with never claim to bind us,


s: By track and trail you'll meet us once again.


s: We are fated serfs to freedom--sky and sea;


s: We have failed where slummy cities overflow;


s: But the stranger ways of earth know our pride and know our worth,


s: Yes, we go into the night as brave men go,


s: Though our faces they be often streaked with woe;


s: And we've danced with death a dozen times or so.


s: And you'll find us in Alaska after gold,


s: And you'll find us herding cattle in the South.


s: We like strong drink and fun; and when the race is run,


s: We are wild as colts unbroke, but never mean;


s: Of our sins we've shoulders broad to bear the blame;


s: But we'll never stay in town, and we'll never settle down,


s: And we'll never have an object or an aim.


s: No, there's that in us that time can never tame;


s: And life will always seem a careless game;


s: Forget, blot out with bitterness our name.


s: It's cruel cold on the water-front, silent and dark and drear;


s: Only the black tide weltering, only the hissing snow;


s: Shuffling along in the icy wind, ghastly and gaunt and slow.


s: They're playing a tune in McGuffy's saloon, and it's cheery and


s: McGuffy is showing a bunch of the boys how Bob Fitzsimmons hit;


s: The barman is talking of Tammany Hall, and why the ward boss got


s: I'll just sneak into a corner, and they'll let me alone a bit;


s: The room is reeling round and round ... O God, but I'm tired, I'm


s: And I held her fast to my throbbing heart, and I kissed her bonny


s: Don't you remember that long, last waltz, with its sobbing, sad


s: Don't you remember that last goodbye, and the dear eyes dim with


s: Don't you remember that golden dream, with never a hint of pain,


s: Of lives that would blend like an angel-song in the bliss of the


s: Oh, what have I lost! What have I lost! Ethel, forgive, forgive!


s: The red, red rose is faded now, and it's fifty years ago.


s: Say! ain't you got no sentiment? Lift up your muddled head;


s: Have a drink to the glad New Year, a drop before you go--


s: You darned old dirty hobo ... My God! Here, boys! He's DEAD!"


s: Why, you've still the sunshine left you,


s: What! you're tired and broke and beaten?--


s: 'Twas a year ago and the moon was bright


s: I walked with my love in a sea of light,


s: And the voice of my sweet was a silver bell.


s: And sudden the moon grew strangely dull,


s: I looked on the face of a grinning skull,


s: 'Twas but fantasy, for my love lay still


s: And she wondered why my lips were chill,


s: And my heart is broken--it's strange, you know.


s: Along the road to Anywhere, when each day had its story;


s: When time was yet our vassal, and life's jest was still unstale;


s: Alas! the road to Anywhere is pitfalled with disaster;


s: There's hunger, want, and weariness, yet O we loved it so!


s: As on we tramped exultantly, and no man was our master,


s: The tragic road to Anywhere, such dear, dim years ago.


s: I love the flowers, the fragrant flowers!


s: Tinged deep with faith's unchanging hue,


s: His pretty feet go trotting side by side


s: Old Granny smiles and grunting seems to say


s: "Ce petit prodige c'est moi qui l'ai fait."


s: And when young Stag his coat has slipt on


s: And vows this Greyhound's quite a _bore_.


s: While Poll her maid with light and rope-a


s: Broke is her _neck_, and crack'd his _crown_!


s: And catch this Moral from the Scene before ye


s: Crane-necks remember, and beware mischances.


s: In this book I have scribbled some innocent rhymes,


s: In various moods, and at different times;


s: Some grave and some cheerful, some merry, some sad,


s: Though none may be _good_, there are none _very bad_.


s: Great and omnipotent that Power must be,


s: That wings the whirlwind and directs the storm,


s: That, by a strong convulsion, severed thee,


s: And wrought this wondrous chasm in thy form.


s: Man is a dweller, where, in some past day,


s: Thy rock-ribbed frame majestically rose;


s: And all is life where all was once repose.


s: Where Nature seems her loveliest robes to wear,


s: I felt that Pride at such a scene must bow,


s: Oh Thou, to whom directing worlds is play,


s: Thy condescension without bounds must be,


s: While wrapt in solemn awe, my bosom bleeds,


s: Lest recklessly I may have wounded Thee,--


s: Might to his glorious in-gathering come.


s: Judge we of coming, by the by-past, years,


s: And still can Hope, the siren, soothe our fears?


s: Cheated, deceived, our cherished day-dreams o'er,


s: We cling the closer, and we trust the more.


s: Oh, who can say there's bliss in the review


s: Of hours, when Hope with fairy fingers drew


s: The world all bright before us--vivid scene


s: Of cloudless sunshine and of fadeless green;


s: A treacherous picture of our coming years,


s: Bright in prospective--welcomed but with tears.


s: How false the view, a backward glance will tell!


s: A tale of visions wrecked, of broken spell,


s: Of valued hearts estranged or careless grown,


s: Affection's links dissevered or unknown;


s: Of joys, deemed fadeless, gone to swift decay,


s: And love's broad circle dwindled half away;


s: Of early graves of friends who, one by one,


s: Turn to the home of childhood--hallowed spot,


s: Through life's vicissitudes still unforgot;


s: The sacred hearth deserted now is found,


s: Or unloved stranger-forms are circling round.


s: In the dear hall, whose sounds were all our own,


s: And where our early friends? A starting tear


s: And the rude headstone promptly answer, "Here."


s: Thus will compare Hope's sketch of bliss to be


s: Yet this and more the afflicted heart may bear,


s: Whispering of greener shores, of purer skies,


s: Of flowers unfading, love that never dies,


s: A glimpse of joy to come in mercy given,


s: The eternal sunshine of approving Heaven.


s: The untutored savage through the world may plod,


s: Reckless of Heaven and ignorant of his God;


s: But that a mind that's culled improvement's flowers


s: From all her brightest amaranthine bowers,


s: A mind whose keen and comprehensive glance


s: Comprised at once a world--should worship chance,


s: Who, from the exhaustless granary of Heaven,


s: Receives the blessings so profusely given,


s: Looks with a curious eye on Nature's face,


s: And dares with impious voice aloud proclaim


s: He knows no Heaven but this--no God but Fame.


s: But tho' the boon of _life_ he may receive


s: From God, and still affect to disbelieve,


s: What are his views at _death's_ resounding knell?


s: Just Heaven! Sure, man ne'er _died_ an infidel.


s: Stretched on the agonizing couch of pain,


s: Where shall his tortured spirit rest? Ah, where?


s: The past, all gloom! the future, all despair!


s: 'Tis then, O Lord, the skeptic turns to Thee,


s: Then the proud scoffer humbly bends the knee;


s: Feels in this darksome hour there's much to do--


s: Earth fading fast, Heaven's portals far from view.


s: Oh, what a hopeless wretch this man must be!


s: A God of Justice, tho' a Prince of Love.


s: I thought those youthful hearts were bleak and bare,


s: That not a germ had ever flourished there,


s: Unless perchance the night-shade of despair,


s: Which blooms amid the sunless wilderness.


s: But I was told that flowers of fairest kind


s: Graced what I deemed a desert of the mind,


s: That for these hapless beings man had twined


s: A fadeless wreath to make their sorrows less.


s: And then I feared, like sunbeams of the morn


s: Which spoil the frost-work they awhile adorn,


s: That rays of light might render more forlorn


s: The expanding bosoms they were meant to cheer.


s: I feared those glittering beams would vainly show


s: That the best charms of life they ne'er could know,


s: "The feast of reason and the soul's calm flow,"


s: The witchery of sound, the bliss to hear.


s: But when I saw those eyes mirthful and bright,


s: And beaming soft with intellectual light,


s: My groundless fears that moment winged their flight,


s: I felt that joy would on their path attend.


s: May Heaven this favored Institution bless,


s: Man's "high endeavor" crown with "glad success,"


s: Oh! Time, as it fleets, dooms a joy to decay,


s: From the chaplet of hope steals a blossom away,


s: Throws a cloud o'er the lustre of life's fairy scene,


s: And leaves but a thorn where the rosebud had been.


s: It sullies a link in affection's young chain,


s: That, once slightly tarnished, ne'er sparkles again,


s: Spoils the sheaves that the heart in its summer would bind,


s: To guard 'gainst a bleak, leafless autumn of mind.


s: But a region there is where the buds never die,


s: Where the sun meets no cloud in his path through the sky,


s: Where the rose-wreath of joy is immortal in bloom,


s: And pours on the gale a celestial perfume;


s: Where ethereal melodies steal through the soul,


s: And the full tide of rapture is free from control.


s: Oh, we've nothing to do in a bleak world like this,


s: But to toil for a home in that haven of bliss.


s: "Nay, toil not," saith Jesus, "but come unto Me;"


s: There's rest for the weary, rest even for thee--


s: I have toiled, and have suffered, and died for thy sin;


s: Then only believe, and the crown thou shalt win,


s: The crown of Eternal Life, fadeless and bright,


s: Prepared for all nations who walk in the light.


s: And the friends, like a fairy dream, fled.


s: So soft Time's plumage in life's budding spring,


s: The untutored heart, from pain and sadness free,


s: Beats high with hope and joy and ecstasy;


s: Believe their fairy world a world of truth.


s: The thorn is young upon the rose's stem;


s: They heed it not, it has no wound for them.


s: There is a freshness, which returns no more


s: When fades the morn of life that soon is o'er;


s: A zest for pleasure, fearlessness of pain,


s: That we are destined ne'er to know again.


s: And what succeeds this era joyous, bright?


s: Is it a cloudless eve or starless night?


s: To those who're busied in life's brilliant dawn


s: With gathering flowers that bloom when spring is gone,


s: And, ere their morning sun begins to wane,


s: Add many a link to fond affection's chain,


s: To Heaven's supreme behest have meekly bowed--


s: 'Twill prove indeed an eve without a cloud.


s: What though the brilliancy and sheen of day


s: With youthful hours have faded all away;


s: What though the fresh and roseate bloom of spring


s: A fragrance in our path no more shall fling;


s: Yet there's a foretaste pure of joys divine,


s: To light the pilgrim to the gates of Heaven.


s: Hail, pensile gem, that thus can softly gild


s: What frost-work fabrics man shall vainly build


s: Ere thou art doomed thy heavenly post to leave!


s: Bright star! thou seem'st to me a blest retreat,


s: I love to think long-parted friends shall meet,


s: Blissful reunion! in thy tranquil breast.


s: I saw thee shine when life with me was young,


s: And fresh as fleet-winged time's infantile hour,


s: When Hope her treacherous chaplet 'round me flung,


s: I saw thee shine while yet the sacred smile


s: Of home and kindred round my path would play,


s: But Time, who loves our fairest joys to spoil,


s: Destined this hour of bloom to swift decay.


s: The buds, that then were wreathed around my heart,


s: Now breathe their hallowed sweetness there no more;


s: 'Twas thine to see them one by one depart,


s: And yet thou shinest brightly as before.


s: So, when this bosom, that 'mid all its woes


s: Has longed thy little port of rest to win,


s: In the calm grave shall find at last repose,


s: Thou'lt beam as fair as though I ne'er had been.


s: Oh! say, shall those ties, now so sacred and dear,


s: That with rainbow hues tint all our wanderings here,


s: Be regarded no more in that heavenly sphere


s: When, "washed and forgiven," our spirits ascend


s: To the home of the blest where all sorrowings end,


s: O, will not a parent, a sister, a friend,


s: Shall we see no loved form we have gazed on before,


s: To commune with of times that are faded and o'er?


s: Will the "dear chosen few" be remembered no more


s: O my heart must believe, 'mid ethereal chimes


s: A gloom would steal over my spirit sometimes,


s: If the friends I have loved, in these heavenly climes,


s: But hope fondly whispers it shall not be so;


s: Each purified spirit my bosom shall know,


s: And all unremembered the 'plaining of woe,


s: Gay visions for thee 'neath hope's pencil have glowed,


s: Peace dwells in thy bosom, a guileless abode;


s: Thou hast seen the bright side of existence alone,


s: And believ'st every spirit as pure as thine own.


s: May'st thou never awake from these rapturous dreams,


s: To find that the world is not fair as it seems,


s: To feel that the few thou hast loved have deceived,


s: Have forsaken the heart that confided, believed,


s: And left it as leafless, as bloomless, and waste


s: As the rose-tree that's stript by the merciless blast.


s: When the warm sky of childhood was beaming for me,


s: My days were all joyous, my heart was all glee;


s: Affection's best ties round my bosom were spun;


s: No cloud dimmed the lustre of life's morning sun.


s: If I watched o'er my favorite rose-bud's decay,


s: And mourned that its bright tints were fading away,


s: I knew not an anguish more poignant than this,


s: And the morrow's young brow wore a halo of bliss.


s: May'st thou long be a novice to feelings like mine,


s: When the shades of joy's noonday proclaimed their decline,


s: When death has doomed hearts warm as thine to decay,


s: Or frigid estrangement has torn them away.


s: Oh, I sometimes have questioned, when lingering near


s: The home of the dead, of the friends who were dear,


s: If the brightest enchantments of earth could repair


s: The sad devastation that time has made there;


s: If the joys of the world had a balm to impart,


s: That would act as a charm to the woes of the heart.


s: Yes, there is such a balm, but it comes from _above_,


s: It is wafted to earth on the pinions of love;


s: 'Tis the spirit of piety, spotless and pure,


s: That teaches us calmly life's ills to endure;


s: When it reigns in the heart, every error's forgiven,


s: It resigns us to earth, and prepares us for Heaven.


s: "Just at the close of day the Alpine Horn is sounded from the


s: highest mountain top, and mountain, rock and cave echo the


s: As though they loved the grateful sound,


s: The look that taught their hearts to bow,


s: That, when Life's cheating hues decline,


s: Who dwells in house not built with hands,


s: And oft "through paths they know not of,"


s: That none might question Heaven's decree,


s: The track our fathers marked with blood,


s: Would ask my heart if death _could_ steal


s: "Thou great First Cause," Creator, King, and Lord,


s: The worm that breathed at Thy commanding word,


s: And dies whene'er Thou wilt, presumptuous man,


s: Has dared the mazes of Thy path to scan;


s: Guided by reason's powerless rays alone,


s: Would pierce the veil of mystery round Thee thrown.


s: Tell me, proud being!--flutterer of an hour--


s: (Who thus would comprehend creative power),


s: Why worlds were made, why man was formed at all,


s: Or crimeless once, permitted then to fall,


s: The why, the wherefore, boots not us to know,


s: Go thou, and cull the simplest flower that blows,


s: And tell me why so bright their hues appear,


s: Why they return with each revolving year;


s: Or how, when countless worlds are all in bloom,


s: O'er every bud is breathed its own perfume.


s: Yes, solve me this, and I'll believe with thee,


s: 'Twas meant that man should doubt all mystery.


s: Presumptuous worm! enough to know is given--


s: 'Tis fearful meddling with the things of Heaven;


s: To Him whose paths are awful and unknown;


s: Who wings the storm, or whispers "Peace, be still;"


s: Cradling to rest the mountain wave at will;


s: Who for our souls his Son a ransom gave,


s: And guards "his fold" from childhood to the grave.


s: Confess, proud man, all his known ways are just,


s: And what thou canst not fathom "learn to trust."


s: Bright summer comes, all bloom and flowers,


s: But where's the _friend_ she used to bring?


s: There's none to smile, there's none to heed;


s: But oh! how loved those friends shall be


s: "Welcome" at morn and kind "good night!"


s: "Thou art all alone,--where, where is he?"


s: Blossom and blight still marked our way;


s: Yes! and they _ever_ linked _shall_ be--


s: Of worlds, where farewell sounds are o'er,


s: Thou art come from the spirits' land, thou bird!


s: Through the dark pine grove let thy voice be heard,


s: But tell us, thou bird of the solemn strain,


s: Yes! yes, I have come from the spirits' land,


s: I come with a voice from the shadowy band,


s: 'Twould be for the friends they could ne'er forget,


s: That a faithful guard in the dreamless land


s: Are the friends they have loved so dear.


s: They have gone to be seen of men no more;


s: Or the crest of a wave where the moonbeams pour,


s: 'Tis true, in the silent night you call,


s: For the spirits of bliss are voiceless all;


s: That their land is bright and they weep no more,


s: But my plaintive strains should have told before,


s: And a welcome true to their deathless bowers


s: Turn from the grave, turn from the grave,


s: Take from the grave, take from the grave,


s: Till hues of faith shall gild the gloom,


s: 'Tis true, we've much of sadness in our weary sojourn here,


s: The cadences of gladness to your hearts may yet be dear;


s: They have no melody for mine, all, all is desert here.


s: I would not cull Hope's blossoms now, they seem of deadly bloom;


s: And can I love the sunshine, when it smiles upon the tomb?


s: When on one little hallowed spot its joyous beams are thrown,


s: That sacred turf--the all of earth--I now may call my own.


s: For there my joys are sepulchred, my hopes are buried there;


s: Where spirits that are parted here may "mingle into bliss;"


s: _Conviction_ firm that things of time were never yet designed


s: To quench the vast and deathless thirst of an immortal mind.


s: I look to Thee, Redeemer! Oh! be every crime forgiven,


s: And take the weary captive to Thy paradise in Heaven;


s: Or teach my heart resignedly to say, "Thy will be done,"


s: And calmly wait thy summons home, thou just and holy One!


s: 'Tis not when we look on the dreamless dead,


s: And feel that the spirit forever has fled;


s: 'Tis not when we're called to the voiceless tomb


s: By the loved who were culled in their brightest bloom;


s: 'Tis not when the grave's last rite is o'er,


s: And we know they are gone to return no more;


s: But, oh! 'tis when Time with oblivious wing


s: When the dark, dark hours of grief are o'er,


s: And we join the world we can love no more,--


s: That world whose grief for the absent one


s: When, amid the mirth that salutes the ear,


s: _One_ form is missed in that happy train,


s: That will never exult in its sports again;


s: We feel that death has indeed passed o'er,


s: And a blank is left, to be filled no more.


s: But though the world and its witching smile,


s: That cheats the heart of its woes awhile,


s: To chase the cloud from its darkest hour,


s: Soon, soon they'll bear him far away."--


s: 'Twould cloud with woe that placid brow,


s: "Oh! while he lingered, struggling still


s: That tranquil breast would throb with pain;


s: Hope pencilled, too, the sheltering port


s: 'Twill lead us to the 'saints in light,'


s: Fare thee well, fare thee well, for thy journey is o'er,


s: And the place that has known thee, shall know thee no more;


s: The eye that has seen thee, shall seek thee in vain,


s: And thy kindness will soothe us, oh, never again!


s: Yet we cannot forget thee, for, shrined in the heart,


s: Is the memory of virtues that will not depart,--


s: An assemblage of all that is lovely on earth.


s: Thou wert guardian, guide, and instructor to me,


s: And I lose, with thy children, a father in thee.


s: Thy children, alas! they are orphans indeed.


s: Who now shall direct them in seasons of need?


s: The smile that has blest them will bless them no more,


s: And approval and counsel forever are o'er.


s: But the angel of mercy recorded thy prayers,


s: And in gloom and in sunshine _thy_ God will be _theirs_.


s: Oh! the world looks glad, for the spring has smiled,


s: And the birds are come with their "wood-notes wild,"


s: And the waters leap with a joyous sound,


s: Like freedom's voice when a chain's unbound.


s: And soon with its bloom will the earth be gay,


s: For the air is bland as the breath of May;


s: Sunshine and buds and all glorious things


s: Will give to the hours their downiest wings.


s: Wreathed with the glory of brightening bloom;


s: Fetters of frost-work are gently unbound,


s: Blossoms and flowers are clustering round.


s: Bosoms that know not the blighting of care,


s: Sunshine and gladness may smilingly wear;


s: Springtime, alas! has no balm to impart.


s: Tones that are hushed it awakens no more;


s: "Friends that are gone" it can never restore;


s: Yet e'en to the mourner one hope it may bring,


s: 'Tis the type of Eternity's glorious spring.


s: Couldst thou but smile on me, I should be blest.


s: Oh, for the sky-lark's wing to soar to thee!


s: For starry realms whose sky's forever fair;


s: _There_, tears are shed not, hearts will cease to ache,


s: And sorrow's plaintive voice shall never break


s: The heavenly stillness that is reigning there.


s: "For thou art numbered with the silent dead."


s: Oh, how my heart o'er this dark thought has bled!


s: How I have longed for wings to follow thee!


s: With angel smile thou beckon'st me away,


s: Pointing to worlds where hope is free from blight;


s: And then a cloud comes o'er that brow of light,


s: To the heart of trusting childhood life is all a gilded way,


s: Wherein a beam of sunny bliss forever seems to play;


s: It roams about delightedly through pleasure's roseate bower,


s: And gaily makes a playmate, too, of every bird and flower;


s: Holds with the rushing of the winds companionship awhile,


s: And, on the tempest's darkest brow, discerns a brightening smile,


s: And sees, in everything it meets, the features of a friend.


s: "To-day" is full of rosy joy, "to-morrow" is not here:


s: When, for an uncreated hour, was childhood known to fear?


s: Cherished too fondly and too long, for ah! the rich parterre,


s: Crushed in its brightest blossoming, leaves but a desert there.


s: Its young affections are bound up within a mother's love,


s: And oh! if blessings ever yet descended from above


s: And rested on an earthly tie to mark approval given,


s: A mother's love, assuredly, is sanctioned thus by Heaven.


s: But soon the ruthless spoiler comes, and all its trust is vain:


s: The eye that beamed so kindly once, will ne'er unclose again;


s: Then what is left the orphan heart thus mournfully bereft?


s: To call its crushed affections home and count the treasures left,


s: Remembering they are earthly too,--they, too, alas, must die.


s: Perchance of its remaining joys, its fondly garnered things,


s: One may be dearer than the rest--to that it fondly clings;


s: And, resting thus confidingly, it half forgets the woe


s: Which changed the orphan's joyous tones to cadence sad and low.


s: And can the stern destroyer find naught else to call his own


s: That he has stamped his fearful mark upon this chosen one?


s: It boots not to inquire the cause, the why it must be so;


s: "It is his victim," this alone is pain enough to know.


s: And where the joyous faces now that circled round the hearth?


s: (A sad and solitary wreck on life's tempestuous sea)--


s: What but to feel, destroying Time, indeed, has roughly past


s: And blighted fairest dreams of bliss, oh! too, too fair to last;


s: What but to muse on perished joys to which sad memory clings,


s: Yes, this is life! but life it is without that heavenly ray


s: Which ever throws its purest light upon the stormiest way;


s: Which sweetly gilds the darkest sky and comes like angel voice,


s: (E'en 'mid the wreck of dearest hopes), to bid the heart rejoice;


s: To watch with chastened sober bliss the spirit's calm release,


s: This heavenly beam can bid it joy that earthly ties are o'er.


s: For oh! our covenant Lord, who ne'er his sacred promise breaks,


s: Resign the fondly coffered bliss that clogs the immortal part,


s: (In holy trust 'twill all be ours when earth has passed away,)


s: And calmly wait the unclouded dawn of an eternal day,


s: Thy crook still points to "pastures green,"


s: The "stranger's voice" thou, Lord, canst teach


s: And make their "peace," their heavenly peace,


s: Oh, the brow that has never been shaded by care


s: The rosewreath of pleasure may smilingly wear,


s: And the heart that is wholly a stranger to gloom,


s: 'Mid the din of existence may fearlessly bloom;


s: But the one that is blighted by sadness and pain,


s: And blighted too rudely to blossom again,


s: When its hold on a reed-like support is resigned.


s: Nor peace, nor composure, nor solace can find,


s: Nor strength to submit to the chastening rod,


s: Save only in stillness--_alone with its God_!


s: And oh! if a blissful communion with Heaven


s: To earth-wearied spirits has ever been given,


s: If the loved and the distant, the lost and the dead,


s: Who smiled on our pathway a moment, and fled,


s: Who darkened our sunshine and saddened our mirth,


s: To prove that the soul has no home upon earth,


s: Are sent in the night-time of gloom and distress,


s: As heralds of mercy to comfort and bless,


s: To place, while the tempest is fearfully loud,


s: The bright bow of peace on the dark thundercloud,


s: Of a land where the blossom of joy never dies--


s: Such tidings to welcome, oh! where shall we flee,


s: If not, dearest Woodburn, to silence and thee?


s: For ah! did the angel of peace over roam,


s: On an errand of love, from her own hallowed home,


s: To gladden a sin-blighted world for awhile,


s: Make the desert rejoice and the wilderness smile,


s: She has certainly paused in her holy career,


s: And closed up her pinions delightfully here.


s: Dear to me are thy shades, when no sound may be heard


s: Save the soul-soothing strains of thy harmonist bird,


s: For they seem on the soft wing of quiet to come,


s: Faint breathings from Heaven, to bid us prepare


s: But oh! when day rests on the portals of eve,


s: As though loath the bright scene of enchantment to leave,


s: While its drapery of gold, hurried carelessly on,


s: Fades away, tint by tint, till at last all are gone,


s: I feel 'tis an emblem of life's little hour,


s: (Thus perish the hues of hope's loveliest flower),


s: And I sigh for repose on that heavenly shore


s: Where the day is eternal, and change is no more.


s: ... "They that turn many to righteousness,


s: shall shine as the stars forever and ever." ...


s: But did no dark forebodings come? Was all at peace within?


s: Did prompt obedience' sure reward e'en with the toil begin?


s: Ah no! for nature's fond appeal would in that hour be heard;


s: Maternity's deep spring of love within the heart was stirred.


s: Perhaps some little cherub form, that it was joy to see,


s: Would climb no more, with sunny smile, its happy parent's knee;


s: A moment nature shrank--the thought was too, too full of pain--


s: To execute with fearless trust the holy high command,--


s: "Go, and glad gospel tidings spread, over a distant land,


s: And beams of heavenly peace around your guarded path shall play,


s: Peace that the world can never give, nor ever take away."


s: But has the fearful sacrifice at last been made in vain?


s: And shall no trace within our hearts, no deathless trace remain?


s: Bright record, that with us awhile their dwelling place has been,


s: Oh yes, I trust, a fount of light and life they have unsealed


s: To many a thirsting, fainting soul, a Saviour's love revealed;


s: Have taught "that in his service there is perfect freedom" still,


s: And if a humble suppliant may bow before Thy throne,


s: My Father! and a blessing ask on hearts to her unknown,


s: Oh! grant for them "the lines may fall in pleasant places" here,


s: "Beside still waters" bid them rest, and feel that Thou art near.


s: And should the world desert them, Lord, oh, be the world to them,


s: Thy sacred guidance grant, I pray, o'er life's tempestuous sea,


s: Awhile a gentle course, and then,--a sheltering port in Thee.


s: The stream they worshipped turned to blood,


s: Staves in their hands, loins girded too,


s: Whose side-posts and whose lintels, too,


s: Then though the faith will oft be proved,


s: The last look is taken, the last word is said--


s: Haste away o'er the waves, then, glad tidings to spread;


s: Thy Master has called thee, no longer delay,


s: His work it is glorious, haste, haste thee away.


s: Come, set the sails, mariner, now we're off shore,


s: Then weep for the loved ones thou leavest no more;


s: He is faithful who promised, thou heard'st Him declare


s: That all thou intrusts to his fatherly care


s: He will keep in the sheltering fold of his love,


s: Where nothing shall harm them and nothing shall move.


s: He will suffer no plague nigh thy dwelling to come,


s: And His angels shall guard thee wherever thou roam;


s: No weapon shall prosper that's formed against thee,


s: For the truth thou hast loved, shield and buckler shall be.


s: This the heritage is of the child of the Lord,


s: Of him who confides in his covenant word,


s: And freely forsakes, when his Saviour commands,


s: His brethren, and sisters, and children, and lands.


s: Though the ocean may roar, and earth shake with the swell,


s: His home is in Jesus, and all will be well;


s: Though the mountains depart, and the hills may remove,


s: He quietly rests 'neath the wing of His love.


s: He knows that the work of the righteous is peace,


s: That the blessed effect thereof never shall cease;


s: And bliss without end in a holier sphere.


s: So, Christian, God speed thee, and should the storm lower,


s: Cast firmly thine anchor, and trust in His power.


s: His voice than the billows is mightier far,


s: And His mercy is o'er thee a safe guiding star.


s: But oh! when the clouds have all vanished away,


s: And life smiles around thee, a bright summer's day,


s: When the breeze wafts thee onward, and no rocks appear,


s: Then, Christian, thine hour of peril is near;


s: The world may frown on thee, but oh! should it smile,


s: Come apart to the desert, and rest thee awhile.


s: Ah! be not sad, though adverse winds may blow,


s: Thy patience and thy fortitude to prove;


s: Thy Saviour wears no frown upon his brow,--


s: "'Tis but the graver countenance of love."


s: Though clouds and darkness round about him roll,


s: In righteousness and truth He sits enthroned;


s: And precious in His sight the immortal soul,


s: For whose deep stain of guilt His love atoned.


s: He makes our dearest earthly comforts flee,


s: Or, e'en when clustering round us, bids them pall,


s: That thus the "altogether lovely,"--He,--


s: "Chief of ten thousand," may be all in all.


s: And hast thou not some blissful moments known,


s: Even while bowed beneath the chast'ning rod,


s: Hast thou not seen the King in beauty there,


s: And has He not assured thy fainting heart,


s: That from His reconciled, His child and heir,


s: The covenant of His peace would ne'er depart?


s: With the pure river of His joy and love,


s: Subdued each murmuring thought to his control,


s: And stayed thy mind on changeless things above?


s: When He, thou callest "Abba, Father," placed


s: Thou wast engraven, ne'er to be effaced,[A]


s: Then doubt no more, for the omniscient God,


s: All whose mysterious ways are just and true,


s: In life will comfort with his staff and rod,


s: Be near in death, and guide thee safely through.


s: And when the race is run, the victory given,


s: How sweet with the redeemed to bear the palm,


s: Ten thousand times ten thousand saints in Heaven,


s: Fare thee well, we've no wish to detain thee,


s: For the loved ones are bidding thee come,


s: And, we know, a bright welcome awaits thee


s: Thou art safe on the crest of the billow,


s: For the loved who are circling around thee,


s: Oh, then, for the weak and the faltering,


s: Should a prayer, as sweet incense, ascend


s: The light, which burned brightly among us,


s: For thou preached not thyself to us, brother,


s: Till the sun shall be turned into darkness,


s: And the God we have worshipped together,


s: The God of glory thundereth! who hath not heard His voice,


s: Bidding the sinner tremble, and the pure in heart rejoice?


s: Yes, yes, the sinner trembleth, for the Judge is on His throne,


s: Rendering to all a recompense for the deeds which they have done,


s: But the pure in heart rejoiceth, because for him doth blend,


s: In the Judge of all the universe, a Saviour and a Friend;


s: He looketh up confidingly, with unpresumptuous eye,


s: And smiling says, "My Father, on Thy mercy I rely!"


s: The God of glory thundereth! How awful is His voice,


s: Yes, yes, the sinner trembleth, for his robes are still defiled,


s: To the God of love and purity he is not reconciled;


s: Yet He is seated on His throne in fearful, dread array,


s: Before whose face both heaven and earth shall swiftly flee away.


s: Made white beneath the fountain which flowed from Jesus' side,


s: So as "no fuller on the earth could whiten them" beside.


s: The God of glory thundereth! still louder is His voice,


s: Bidding the sinner tremble, and the pure in heart rejoice.


s: Yes, yes, the sinner trembleth, for his day of grace is o'er,


s: The Bridegroom hath arisen, and closed is mercy's door;


s: That grace he long resisted, how did it plead in vain!


s: And now its sweet persuasive strains will ne'er be heard again.


s: But the pure in heart rejoiceth, his lamp is burning bright,


s: And welcome is the cry to him, though heard at dead of night,


s: "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" Oh, what joy to enter in


s: Where the nations that are saved, their Sabbath shall begin.


s: The God of glory thundereth! yet louder is His voice,


s: Well may the sinner tremble, and quake with fear and dread,


s: For the last trump is sounding and the sea gives up her dead.


s: The Books, the Books are opened! awestruck his eyes behold


s: That in the unfolded Book of Life his name is not enrolled.


s: But the pure in heart rejoiceth, he hath heard a welcome home;


s: With songs of joy and gladness unto Zion he is come;


s: "Well done, thou faithful servant! to _thee_ it shall be given


s: To see thy Saviour as He is, and reign with Him in Heaven."


s: They are calling on the mountains and on the rocks to fall,


s: And hide them from the wrath of Him who died to save them all.


s: They have met, they have met! now their pinions unfurl


s: Whose every gate is of one liquid pearl,


s: That city, which needeth no light from the sun,


s: Where the moon sheds her lustre no more,


s: But where, in the smile of the Crucified One,


s: One by one are the loved ones all gathering there,


s: In white robes they encircle the throne;


s: Oh! what bliss to unite where sin cannot blight,


s: And where parting and death are unknown.


s: They are come to Mount Zion, the city of God;


s: They are joined to the glorified throng;


s: One pathway of sorrow by all has been trod,


s: Omnipotent Lord, just and true are Thy ways!


s: Oh! who shall not fear Thee and echo Thy praise,


s: Ye have met, ye have met, disencumbered of pain,


s: And the slave and the prisoner, now freed from their chain,


s: The true light now shines and the darkness is past,


s: And your pure loving spirits are gathered at last,


s: May the balm of your memory steal through the soul,


s: Exert o'er the feelings a sacred control,


s: In the world we shall seek your resemblance in vain,


s: Yet who by a wish would recall you again?


s: The King in His beauty your eyes now behold,


s: He has sweetly dispelled all your fears;


s: To the well-spring of waters the Lamb leads His fold,


s: Great grace was upon you, and oh! unto us


s: That through pardoning love we may mingle above.


s: If with the aspersed one he should fail,


s: _Thou_ hast had much, yea _much_ forgiven;


s: Poor throbbing heart! the battle wave of life


s: Beats strong against thee, yet thou strugglest on,


s: Breasting the mighty billows, though no kind, well-known voice,


s: When the great mountain wave threatens to o'erwhelm,


s: Whispers the soul-reviving words, "Be of good cheer,


s: The port is nearing fast!" Instead of this


s: Is heard the mournful moan of the discourager,


s: Portending peril, shipwreck, loss of all.


s: Of many waters, who sitteth on the flood


s: He sees thee breast the wave, upheld alone


s: By childlike trust and confidence in Him,


s: And through the storm is heard His gentle tone,


s: "Daughter, be comforted,--thy faith hath saved thee."


s: The Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his


s: inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste


s: howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed him, he kept


s: him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest,


s: fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh


s: them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him,


s: and there was no strange god with him.--DEUT. 32: 9-12.


s: When the eagle finds her brood is fledged,


s: Thus, when the heart with the cares of time


s: Like Paul, he "went from house to house,"


s: The loved, the lost, the cherished ones,


s: At the Sea-Side                                     opposite


s: Rain                                                opposite


s: Thought, A                                          opposite


s: Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,


s: Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.


s: Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,


s: And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.


s: Where shall we adventure, to-day that we're afloat,


s: Wary of the weather and steering by a star?


s: Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,


s: Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea--


s: Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar!


s: Quick, and we'll escape them, they're as mad as they can be,


s: The wicket is the harbor and the garden is the shore.


s: Late in the night when the fires are out,


s: Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;


s: I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,


s: And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.


s: He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;


s: And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.


s: The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--


s: Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;


s: For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,


s: And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.


s: He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,


s: And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.


s: He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;


s: I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!


s: One morning, very early, before the sun was up,


s: I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;


s: But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,


s: Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.


s: I woke before the morning, I was happy all the day.


s: I never said an ugly word, but smiled and stuck to play.


s: And now at last the sun is going down behind the wood,


s: And I am very happy, for I know that I've been good.


s: My bed is waiting cool and fresh, with linen smooth and fair,


s: And I must off to sleepsin-by, and not forget my prayer.


s: I know that, till to-morrow I shall see the sun arise,


s: No ugly dream shall fright my mind, no ugly sight my eyes.


s: But slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn,


s: And hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn.


s: The lights from the parlor and kitchen shone out


s: Through the blinds and the windows and bars;


s: There were thousands of millions of stars.


s: There ne'er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,


s: As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,


s: And that glittered and winked in the dark.


s: The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,


s: These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall


s: They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,


s: But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,


s: The world is so full of a number of things,


s: I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.


s: My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;


s: It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;


s: For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,


s: With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.


s: Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,


s: And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;


s: But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,


s: O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!


s: For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,


s: And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;


s: And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;


s: O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!


s: Breaking the branches and crawling below,


s: Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,


s: Here is the mill with the humming of thunder,


s: Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,


s: Here is the sluice with the race running under--


s: Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,


s: Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;


s: Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,


s: Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.


s: Years may go by, and the wheel in the river


s: Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,


s: Wheel and keep roaring and foaming forever


s: Home from the Indies and home from the ocean,


s: Heroes and soldiers we all shall come home;


s: Still we shall find the old mill-wheel in motion,


s: Turning and churning that river to foam.


s: You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled,


s: Honored and old and all gaily apparelled,


s: Here we shall meet and remember the past.


s: The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;


s: She shines on thieves on the garden wall,


s: And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.


s: The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,


s: The howling dog by the door of the house,


s: All love to be out by the light of the moon.


s: But all of the things that belong to the day


s: And flowers and children close their eyes


s: Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.


s: Faster than fairies, faster than witches,


s: And charging along like troops in a battle,


s: All through the meadows the horses and cattle:


s: All of the sights of the hill and the plain


s: Here is the child who clambers and scrambles,


s: And there is the green for stringing the daisies!


s: And here is a mill and there is a river:


s: Till the shining scythes went far and wide


s: And they piled them here in mountain tops


s: All round the house is the jet-black night;


s: It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light,


s: Now my little heart goes a-beating like a drum,


s: With the breath of the Bogie in my hair,


s: And all round the candle the crooked shadows come,


s: The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp,


s: The shadow of the child that goes to bed--


s: All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp,


s: When children are playing alone on the green


s: In comes the playmate that never was seen.


s: When children are happy and lonely and good,


s: The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood.


s: But he's sure to be present, abroad or at home,


s: When children are happy and playing alone.


s: He lies in the laurels, he runs on the grass,


s: He sings when you tinkle the musical glass:


s: Whene'er you are happy and cannot tell why,


s: The Friend of the Children is sure to be by!


s: He loves to be little, he hates to be big,


s: 'T is he that inhabits the caves that you dig;


s: 'T is he when you play with your soldiers of tin


s: That sides with the Frenchmen and never can win.


s: 'T is he, when at night you go off to your bed,


s: Bids you go to your sleep and not trouble your head;


s: For wherever they're lying, in cupboard or shelf,


s: 'T is he will take care of your playthings himself!


s: O it's I that am the captain of a tidy little ship,


s: Of a ship that goes a-sailing on the pond;


s: And my ship it keeps a-turning all around and all about;


s: But when I'm a little older, I shall find the secret out


s: How to send my vessel sailing on beyond.


s: For I mean to grow as little as the dolly at the helm,


s: And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing I shall go,


s: It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow


s: For beside the dolly sailor, I'm to voyage and explore,


s: To land upon the island where no dolly was before,


s: And to fire the penny cannon in the bow.


s: These nuts, that I keep in the back of the nest,


s: Where all my lead soldiers are lying at rest,


s: Were gathered in autumn by nursie and me


s: In a wood with a well by the side of the sea.


s: This whistle we made (and how clearly it sounds!)


s: By the side of a field at the end of the grounds,


s: Of a branch of a plane, with a knife of my own,


s: It was nursie who made it, and nursie alone!


s: The stone, with the white and the yellow and gray,


s: We discovered I cannot tell how far away;


s: And I carried it back, although weary and cold,


s: For though father denies it, I'm sure it is gold.


s: But of all my treasures the last is the king,


s: For there's very few children possess such a thing;


s: And that is a chisel, both handle and blade,


s: Which a man who was really a carpenter made.


s: What are you able to build with your blocks?


s: Rain may keep raining, and others go roam,


s: But I can be happy and building at home.


s: Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,


s: And a harbor as well where my vessels may ride.


s: Great is the palace with pillar and wall,


s: To where my toy vessels lie safe in the bay.


s: This one is sailing and that one is moored:


s: Hark to the song of the sailors on board!


s: And see on the steps of my palace, the kings


s: Coming and going with presents and things!


s: Now I have done with it, down let it go!


s: Block upon block lying scattered and free,


s: What is there left of my town by the sea?


s: The kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,


s: And as long as I live and where'er I may be,


s: I'll always remember my town by the sea.


s: There, in the night, where none can spy,


s: These are the hills, these are the woods,


s: More thick than rain he showers his rays.


s: He digs the flowers, green, red, and blue,


s: And all the thousand things that children are.


s: Watch the children, our successors, play.


s: While flowing fast away, leaves love behind.


s: Flows past our childhood's garden still;


s: The bones of antelope, the wings of albatross,


s: The junks and bangles, beads and screens,


s: These rhymes for old acquaintance' sake!


s: Then shall you discover, that your name was printed down


s: By the English printers, long before, in London town.


s: In the great and busy city where the East and West are met,


s: All the little letters did the English printer set;


s: While you thought of nothing, and were still too young to play,


s: Foreign people thought of you in places far away.


s: Ay, and while you slept, a baby, over all the English lands,


s: Other little children took the volume in their hands;


s: Other children questioned, in their homes across the seas:


s: Who was little Louis, won't you tell us, mother, please?


s: Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down and go and play.


s: Watching all the mighty whalebones, lying buried by the breeze,


s: Tiny sandy-pipers, and the huge Pacific seas.


s: And remember in your playing, as the sea-fog rolls to you,


s: Long ere you could read it, how I told you what to do;


s: And that while you thought of no one, nearly half the world away


s: Some one thought of Louis on the beach of Monterey!


s: All rights reserved. No part of this book


s: may be reproduced in any form without the


s: _From the sick child, now well and old,_


s: _Take, nurse, the little book you hold!_


s: _And grant it, Heaven, that all who read_


s: _In the bright, fireside, nursery clime,_


s: He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;


s: I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!


s: Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,


s: Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.


s: Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,


s: And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.


s: Where shall we adventure, to-day that we're afloat,


s: Wary of the weather and steering by a star?


s: Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,


s: Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea--


s: Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar!


s: Quick, and we'll escape them, they're as mad as they can be,


s: The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore.


s: Late in the night when the fires are out,


s: Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;


s: I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,


s: And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.


s: He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;


s: And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.


s: The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--


s: Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;


s: For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,


s: And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.


s: He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,


s: And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.


s: He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;


s: I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!


s: One morning, very early, before the sun was up,


s: I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;


s: But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,


s: Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.


s: I woke before the morning, I was happy all the day,


s: I never said an ugly word, but smiled and stuck to play.


s: And now at last the sun is going down behind the wood,


s: And I am very happy, for I know that I've been good.


s: My bed is waiting cool and fresh, with linen smooth and fair


s: And I must be off to sleepsin-by, and not forget my prayer.


s: I know that, till to-morrow I shall see the sun arise,


s: No ugly dream shall fright my mind, no ugly sight my eyes.


s: But slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn,


s: And hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn.


s: The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out


s: Through the blinds and the windows and bars;


s: There were thousands of millions of stars.


s: There ne'er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,


s: As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,


s: And that glittered and winked in the dark.


s: The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,


s: These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall


s: They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,


s: But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,


s: The world is so full of a number of things,


s: I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.


s: Breaking the branches and crawling below,


s: Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,


s: Here is the mill with the humming of thunder,


s: Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,


s: Here is the sluice with the race running under--


s: Marvellous places, though handy to home!


s: Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,


s: Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;


s: Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,


s: Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.


s: Years may go by, and the wheel in the river


s: Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,


s: Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever


s: Home from the Indies and home from the ocean,


s: Heroes and soldiers we all shall come home;


s: Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion,


s: Turning and churning that river to foam.


s: You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled,


s: Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled,


s: Here we shall meet and remember the past.


s: My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky.


s: It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;


s: For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,


s: With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.


s: Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,


s: And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;


s: But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,


s: O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!


s: For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,


s: And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;


s: And oh! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;


s: O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight!


s: The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;


s: She shines on thieves on the garden wall,


s: And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.


s: The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,


s: The howling dog by the door of the house,


s: All love to be out by the light of the moon.


s: But all of the things that belong to the day


s: And flowers and children close their eyes


s: Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.


s: Faster than fairies, faster than witches,


s: And charging along like troops in a battle


s: All through the meadows the horses and cattle:


s: All of the sights of the hill and the plain


s: Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,


s: And there is the green for stringing the daisies


s: And here is a mill, and there is a river:


s: Till the shining scythes went far and wide


s: And they piled them here in mountain tops


s: All round the house is the jet-black night;


s: It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light,


s: Now my little heart goes a-beating like a drum,


s: With the breath of the Bogie in my hair;


s: And all round the candle the crooked shadows come,


s: The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp,


s: The shadow of the child that goes to bed--


s: All the wicked shadows coming, tramp, tramp, tramp,


s: When children are playing alone on the green,


s: In comes the playmate that never was seen.


s: When children are happy and lonely and good,


s: The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood.


s: But he's sure to be present, abroad or at home,


s: When children are happy and playing alone.


s: He lies in the laurels, he runs on the grass,


s: He sings when you tinkle the musical glass;


s: Whene'er you are happy and cannot tell why,


s: The Friend of the Children is sure to be by!


s: He loves to be little, he hates to be big,


s: 'Tis he that inhabits the caves that you dig;


s: 'Tis he when you play with your soldiers of tin


s: That sides with the Frenchmen and never can win.


s: 'Tis he, when at night you go off to your bed,


s: Bids you go to your sleep and not trouble your head;


s: For wherever they're lying, in cupboard or shelf,


s: 'Tis he will take care of your playthings himself!


s: O it's I that am the captain of a tidy little ship,


s: Of a ship that goes a-sailing on the pond;


s: And my ship it keeps a-turning all around and all about;


s: But when I'm a little older, I shall find the secret out


s: How to send my vessel sailing on beyond.


s: For I mean to grow as little as the dolly at the helm,


s: And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing I shall go,


s: It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow


s: For beside the dolly sailor, I'm to voyage and explore,


s: To land upon the island where no dolly was before,


s: And to fire the penny cannon in the bow.


s: These nuts, that I keep in the back of the nest


s: Where all my lead soldiers are lying at rest,


s: Were gathered in autumn by nursie and me


s: In a wood with a well by the side of the sea.


s: This whistle we made (and how clearly it sounds!)


s: By the side of a field at the end of the grounds.


s: Of a branch of a plane, with a knife of my own,


s: It was nursie who made it, and nursie alone!


s: The stone, with the white and the yellow and grey,


s: We discovered I cannot tell _how_ far away;


s: And I carried it back although weary and cold,


s: For though father denies it, I'm sure it is gold.


s: But of all my treasures the last is the king,


s: For there's very few children possess such a thing;


s: And that is a chisel, both handle and blade,


s: Which a man who was really a carpenter made.


s: What are you able to build with your blocks?


s: Rain may keep raining, and others go roam,


s: But I can be happy and building at home.


s: Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,


s: And a harbour as well where my vessels may ride.


s: Great is the palace with pillar and wall,


s: To where my toy vessels lie safe in the bay.


s: This one is sailing and that one is moored:


s: Hark to the song of the sailors on board!


s: And see, on the steps of my palace, the kings


s: Coming and going with presents and things!


s: Now I have done with it, down let it go!


s: Block upon block lying scattered and free,


s: What is there left of my town by the sea?


s: The kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,


s: And as long as I live and where'er I may be,


s: I'll always remember my town by the sea.


s: There, in the night, where none can spy,


s: These are the hills, these are the woods,


s: More thick than rain he showers his rays.


s: He digs the flowers, green, red, and blue,


s: And all the thousand things that children are.


s: We watch the children, our successors, play.


s: While flowing fast away, leaves love behind.


s: Flows past our childhood's garden still;


s: The bones of antelope, the wings of albatross,


s: The junks and bangles, beads and screens,


s: These rhymes for old acquaintance' sake!


s: Then shall you discover, that your name was printed down


s: By the English printers, long before, in London town.


s: In the great and busy city where the East and West are met,


s: All the little letters did the English printer set;


s: While you thought of nothing, and were still too young to play,


s: Foreign people thought of you in places far away.


s: Ay, and while you slept, a baby, over all the English lands


s: Other little children took the volume in their hands;


s: Other children questioned, in their homes across the seas:


s: Who was little Louis, won't you tell us, mother, please?


s: Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down and go and play,


s: Watching all the mighty whalebones, lying buried by the breeze,


s: Tiny sandpipers, and the huge Pacific seas.


s: And remember in your playing, as the sea-fog rolls to you,


s: Long ere you could read it, how I told you what to do;


s: And that while you thought of no one, nearly half the world away


s: Some one thought of Louis on the beach of Monterey!


s: _Copyright 1895, by Charles Scribner's Sons_


s: Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,


s: Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.


s: Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,


s: And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.


s: Where shall we adventure to-day that we're afloat,


s: Wary of the weather and steering by a star?


s: Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,


s: Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea--


s: Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar!


s: Quick, and we'll escape them, they're as mad as they can be,


s: The wicket is the harbour and the garden the shore.


s: Late in the night when the fires are out,


s: Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;


s: I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,


s: And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.


s: He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;


s: And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.


s: The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--


s: Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;


s: For he sometimes shoots up taller, like an india-rubber ball,


s: And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.


s: He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,


s: And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.


s: He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;


s: I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!


s: One morning, very early, before the sun was up,


s: I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;


s: But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,


s: Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.


s: I woke before the morning, I was happy all the day,


s: I never said an ugly word, but smiled and stuck to play.


s: And now at last the sun is going down behind the wood,


s: And I am very happy, for I know that I've been good.