fate. "THE sky is clouded, the rocks are bare f "The trail is narrow, the wood is dim, But the ship sailed safely over the sea, Grandmother Tenterden. (MASSACHUSETTS SHORE, 1800.) I MIND it was but yesterday,- He said, "God keep you, mother dear," But did not turn to kiss his wife; They had some foolish, idle strife; Howbeit that night I took no note Of sea nor sky, for all was drear ; I marked not that the hills looked near, Nor that the moon, though curved and clear, Through curd-like scud did drive and float. For with my darling went the joy It seemed as if the sun went down With him, my only darling boy. It was the middle of the night, It was the middle of the night,- And there he stood! his seaman's dress Dripped from his garments constantly, I could not speak through cowardness. "I come through night and storm," he said; "Through storm and night and death," said he, "To kiss my wife, if it so be That strife still holds 'twixt her and me, For all beyond is peace," he said. "The sea is His, and He who sent The wind and wave can soothe their strife ; He stooped and kissed his sleeping wife, Now, when my darling kissed not me, And when the slow weeks brought him not, For she, her hope upheld her pride; It was about the next spring-tide, One time I thought, before she passed, And here I sit, nor care to roam; And every ship at last comes home. And you have sailed the Spanish Main, Yielded its dead to humble me? My boy!... My Jacob! . . . Turn again! FOL. 1. Guild's Signal. WILLIAM GUILD was engineer of the train which on the 19th of April plunged into Meadow Brook, on the line of the Stonington and Providence Railroad. It was his custom, as often as he passed his home, to whistle an "All's well " to his wife. He was found, after the disaster, dead, with his hand on the throttle-valve of his engine. Two low whistles, quaint and clear, That was the signal the engineer That was the signal that Guild, 'tis said— As through the sleeping town, and thence, On to the light, Down past the farms, lying white, he sped! As a husband's greeting, scant, no doubt, Watching and waiting, no serenade, "To my trust true, So love to you! Working or waiting, good night!" it said. |