DICKENS IN CAMP.
Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting,
The river sang below,
The dim Sierras,[1] far beyond, uplifting
Their minarets of snow.
The roaring camp-fire, with rude humor, painted 5
The ruddy tints of health
On haggard face and form that drooped and fainted
In the fierce race for wealth;
Till one arose, and from his pack's scant treasure
A hoarded volume drew, 10
And cards were dropped from hands of listless leisure,
To hear the tale anew;
And then, while round them shadows gathered faster,
And as the firelight fell,
He read aloud the book wherein the Master[2] 15
Had writ of "Little Nell."[3]
Perhaps 'twas boyish fancy,—for the reader
Was youngest of them all,—
But, as he read, from clustering pine and cedar
A silence seemed to fall; 20
The fir-trees, gathering closer in the shadows,
Listened in every spray,
While the whole camp, with "Nell," on English meadows
Wandered and lost their way.
And so in mountain solitudes—o'ertaken 25
As by some spell divine—
Their cares dropped from them like the needles shaken
From out the gusty pine.
Lost is that camp, and wasted all its fire:
And he who wrought that spell?— 30
Ah, towering pine and stately Kentish spire,[4]
Ye have one tale[5] to tell!
Lost is that camp! but let its fragrant story[6]
Blend with the breath that thrills
With hop-vines' incense[7] all the pensive glory 35
That fills the Kentish hills.
And on that grave where English oak and holly
And laurel wreaths intwine,[8]
Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly,—
This spray of Western pine. 40
—Harte.
[1] Sierra. A Spanish term, meaning a mountain range. The name Sierra was applied, of course, to a great many different ranges.
[2] the Master. Dickens.
[3] Little Nell. The heroine of Dickens' novel, The Old Curiosity Shop.
[4] Dickens died at Gadshill, Kent, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
[5] one tale. Both they who heard the story, and he who wrote it, are dead.
[6] Let the fragrance of the western pine blend with the incense of the hop-vines in memory of Dickens. In other words, let me add this story as another tribute to his memory.
[7] hop-vines' incense. The smell of the hop-vines. Kent is the chief hop-growing county of England.
[8] The great writers of England have done honour to Dickens.