Friend of our hearts! Our king!
Generous, kind and true!
Out let our praises fling—
Shout we for Brian Boru."
Bursts the wild song from a thousand throats,
Sounding through wood and plain,
While the mountains echo the dying notes,
Ringing them out again.
Francis Bret Harte.
As a poet, we represent Bret Harte by his "Plain Language from Truthful James," better known as "The Heathen Chinee." The main reference to his writings follows, in the next classification of Novelists and Story Writers.
PLAIN LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES,
BETTER KNOWN AS "THE HEATHEN CHINEE."
TABLE MOUNTAIN, 1870.
Which I wish to remark,—
And my language is plain,—
That for ways that are dark,
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
Which the same I would rise to explain.
Ah Sin was his name;
And I shall not deny
In regard to the same
What that name might imply,
But his smile it was pensive and child-like,
As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye.
It was August the third;
And quite soft was the skies;
Which it might be inferred
That Ah Sin was likewise;
Yet he played it that day upon William
And me in a way I despise.