"Oh stars, go down! Oh sun, be shrouded now!
My love comes not; he does not live," she said;
And brushed the curls he'd kissed back from her brow,
And pout on mourning for her dead.
And still as oft the day came round that he
Had left his warm good-bye upon her lips,
As oft she sought the head-land by sea,
And longing watched the far-off white-sailed ships.
To-day, the low sand-beach was over-strewn;
Torn sail, and broken spar and human form,
'Gulfed by the waves, and crushed, and then out-thrown—
A ship went down in yester-night's wild storm.
She walked among the debris, and the dead,
As some sweet mercy-sister on her round,
Scanning each up-turned face with nameless dread,
For aught of life; her tireless searching found
A babe—a waif with tawny tangled locks,
And great blue eyes with wonder brimming o'er;
Of all the human freight wrecked on the rocks,
The only living thing that washed ashore.
A pearl-gemmed golden case upon its breast
She oped, then stared, her eyes a-sudden wild,
A name, a pictured face told all the rest;
His name—his face—his child!
UNCLE SAM'S SOLILOQUY.
I'm a century old and more to-day—
A ripe old age for a modern man,—
Yet they who rocked my cradle, they say,
Predicted a thousand years my span;
They christened me at the fount of prayer,
And gave me a star-gemmed robe to wear.
My first free breath was battle-smoke
A prayerful nurses did not abhor
The sounds that first my ear awoke—
The clash and din and shout of war.
They pressed in my hand a crown of might
And pointed my way to the eagle's flight.