XXVIII
The fog grew lighter with the dawn of day,
As did the boy’s heart after night of weeping,
He early ’rose, and would have left the ship,
But since for boatswain he possessed no tip,
He dared not rouse him from his pleasant sleeping,
And distance from the shore compelled his stay.
At last both crew and passengers awoke,
And all gazed at the lad, some with a smile,
When of his rescue told, some poked their fun;
But ’mongst the passengers his eye met one,
Who read the trouble of a homesick child,
And in strange accents kindly to him spoke.
She seemed to him the fairest he had seen,
A spirit, from the silv’ry mist emerged,
A gleam of light, strayed from the hidden sun,
Enlivening the sodden scene and dun,
A Venus from the foam where billows surged,
Born to be worshiped, or to be a queen.
But what she said to him was quite Egyptian,
It mattered not, since he could understand
The sympathy and goodness of her heart,
A thing much better than linguistic art
In any woman, yea, in any man,—
Though speech is fine, the deed is much more Christian.
She gave him food and wine and cheered his soul,
Then left him to himself, an hour or so,
When came the captain and thus to him spake:
“Art thou a stranger here, or canst thou make
Thy way alone and knowest where to go,
When lifted is the fog’s distressing pall?”
To which the lad replied: “I know the town,
When I can see its street and thoroughfare,
And now can find my way up to the inn,
Where dwells my master; oh, it was a sin,
That I deserted him, since he may care!
I will return to him;—please let me down!”
To which the captain said: “We have on board
Two passengers who wish an inn to find,
And canst thou guide them to such place, my son?
That lovely lady, whom you met, is one,
The other is her father, noble, kind,
A foreign scholar, and methinks, a lord.”
The boy responded readily to this,
As mid-day drew on clear, became their guide,
Up to that quite pretentious hostelry,
Half glad, half ’fraid his master there to see,
But ignorant how fate strode by his side,
And how it seldom seems to go amiss.