“I wish we might make a Zigzag journey on the St. Lawrence,” said Charlie Leland.
“And collect the old legends, stories, and histories of the Indian tribes, and the early explorers and French settlers,” added Mr. Beal. “Perhaps some day we may be able to do so. I am in haste to return to the States, but I regret to leave a place so perfectly beautiful as the Terrace of Quebec. It is delightful to sit here and see the steamers go and come; to watch the bright, happy faces pass, and to recall the fact that the river below is doubtless to be the water-path of the nations that will most greatly influence future times. But our journey is ended: let us go.”
ON THE TERRACE,—QUEBEC.
Alone, beside these peaceful guns
I walk,—the eve is calm and fair;
Below, the broad St. Lawrence runs,
Above, the castle shines in air,
And o’er the breathless sea and land
Night stretches forth her jewelled hand.
Amid the crowds that hurry past—
Bright faces like a sunlit tide—
Some eyes the gifts of friendship cast
Upon me, as I walk aside,
Kind, wordless welcomes understood,
The Spirit’s touch of brotherhood.
Below, the sea; above, the sky,
Smile each to each, a vision fair;
So like Faith’s zones of light on high,
A sphere seraphic seems the air,
And loving thoughts there seem to meet,
And come and go with golden feet.
Below me lies the old French town,
With narrow rues and churches quaint,
And tilèd roofs and gables brown,
And signs with names of many a saint.
And there in all I see appears
The heart of twice an hundred years.
Beyond, by inky steamers mailed,
Point Levi’s painted roofs arise,
Where emigration long has hailed
The empires of the western skies;
And lightly wave the red flags there,
Like roses of the damask air.
Peace o’er yon garden spreads her palm,
Where heroes fought in other days;
And Honor speaks of brave Montcalm
On Wolfe’s immortal shaft of praise.
What lessons that I used to learn
In schoolboy days to me return!
Fair terrace of the Western Rhine,
I leave thee with unwilling feet,
I long shall see thy castle shine
As bright as now, in memories sweet;
And cheerful thank the kindly eyes
That lent to me their sympathies.