CALIFORNIA MADRIGAL. ON THE APPROACH OF SPRING. Он, come, my beloved! from thy winter abode, From thy home on the Yuba, thy ranch over flowed; For the waters have fallen, the winter has fled, Oh, mark how the spring in its beauty is near! How the fences and tules once more re-appear! How soft lies the mud on the banks of yon slough By the hole in the levee the waters broke through ! All Nature, dear Chloris, is blooming to greet California Madrigal. 211 Again swings the lash on the high mountain trail, And the pipe of the packer is scenting the gale; The oath and the jest ringing high o'er the plain, Where the smut is not always confined to the grain. Once more glares the sunlight on awning and roof, Once more the red clay's pulverized by the hoof, Once more the dust powders the "outsides" with red, Once more at the station the whiskey is spread. Then fly with me, love, ere the summer's begun, sear, In the spring that obtains but one month in the year. ST. THOMAS. A GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY. (1868.) VERY fair and full of promise Lay the island of St. Thomas: Groves of cocoa-nut and guava Said the Mountain ranges, "Thank'ee, But we cannot stand the Yankee St. Thomas. O'er our scars and fissures poring, In our very vitals boring, In our sacred caverns prying, All our secret problems trying, Digging, blasting, with dynamit Said the Sea,-its white teeth gnashing Said the black-browed Hurricane, When I double on my track, 213 And my secret paths made clear, To each gaping, prying crew? So the Mountains shook and thundered, Till one morn, when Mr. Seward Not a wharf or port of entry,— |