He speaks, "What do you at this door?
Why called you not on me before?
What like you best? that I should break
This sturdy barrier for your sake,
And let you in that you may share
The warmth and joy and cheerful fare ;—
Or will you trust to me alone,
And heeding not the windy moan
Nor the cold rain nor lightning-brand,
Go forward with me, hand in hand?
Within this house, if e'er on earth,
You will find love and peace and mirth ;
And there may rest for many a day,
While I am on mine open way;
And should your heart to me incline,
When I am gone,
Take you this little cross of mine
And setting out what path you will,
Careless of your own strength and skill,
You soon will find me; only say,
What wish you most to do to-day?”
The child looks out into the night,
With gaze of pain and pale affright,
Then turns an eye of keen desire
On the thin gleam of inward fire,
Then rests a long and silent while,
Upon that brother's glorious smile.
-You've seen the subtle magnet draw
The iron by its hidden law,
So seems that smile to lure along
The child from an enclosing throng
Of fears and fancies undefined,
And to one passion fix its mind,—
Till every struggling doubt to check
And give to love its due,
It casts its arms about his neck,
And cries "With You, with You,For you have sung me many a song, Like mine own mother's, all night long, And you have play'd with me in dreams, Along the walks, beside the streams, Of Paradise, the blessèd bowers, Where what men call the stars are flowers, And what to them looks deep and blue Is but a veil which we saw through, Into the garden without end, Where you the angel-children tend : So that they asked me when I woke, Where I had been, to whom I spoke, What I was doing there, to seem So heavenly-happy in my dream?
Oh! take me, take me, there again,
Out of the cold and wind and rain,
Out of this dark and cruel town,
Whose houses on the orphan frown;
Bear me the thundering clouds above
To the safe kingdom of your love :
Or if you will not, I can go
With you barefooted through the snow ;-
I shall not feel the bitter blast,
If you will take me home at last."
Three kisses on its dead-cold cheeks,—
Three on its bloodless brow,
And a clear answe'ring music speaks,
"Sweet brother! come there now :
It shall be so; there is no dread
Within the aureole of mine head;
This hand in yours, this living hand,
Can all the world of cold withstand,
And, though so small, is strong to lift
Your feet above the thickest drift;
The wind that round you raged and broke
Shall fold about us like a cloak,
And we shall reach that garden soon,
Without the guide of sun or moon."
So down the mansion's slippe'ry stair,
Into the midnight weather,
Pass, as if sorrows never were,
The weak and strong together.
-This was the night before the morn,
On which the Hope of Man was born,
And long ere dawn can claim the sky,
The tempest rolls subservient by ;
While bells on all sides sing and say,
How Christ the child was born to-day;
Free as the sun's in June, the rays
Mix merry with the Yuhl-log's blaze;
Some butterflies of snow may float
Down slowly, gliste'ning in the mote,
But crystal-leaved and fruited trees
Scarce lose a jewel in the breeze;
Frost-diamonds twinkle on the grass,
Transformed from pearly dew,
And silver flowers encrust the glass,
Which gardens never knew.
The inmates of the house, before
Whose iron-fended heedless door,
The children of our nightly tale
Were standing, rise refreshed and hale,
And run, as if a race to win,
To let the Christmas morning in.
They find, upon the threshold stone,
A little Child, just like their own;
Asleep it seems, but when the head
Is raised, it sleeps, as sleep the dead;
The fatal point had touched it, while
The lips had just begun a smile,
The forehead 'mid the matted tresses
A perfect-painless end expresses,
And, unconvulsed, the hands may wear
The posture more of thanks than prayer.
They tend it straight in wondering grief,—
And, when all skill brings no relief,
They bear it onward, in its smile,
Up the Cathedral's central aisle :
There, soon as Priests and People heard
How the thing was, they speak not word,
But take the usual Image, meant
The blessed babe to represent,
Forth from its cradle, and instead
Lay down that silent mortal head.
Now incense-cloud and anthem-sound
Arise the beauteous body round;
Softly the carol chant is sung,
Softly the mirthful peal is rung,
And, when the solemn duties end,
With tapers earnest troops attend
The gentle corpse, nor cease to sing
Till, by an almond tree,
They bury 'it, that the flowers of spring
May o'er it soonest be.
PRINCE EMILIUS OF HESSEN-DARMSTADT.
FROM Hessen-Darmstadt every step to Moskwa's blazing banks
Was Prince Emilius found in fight before the foremost ranks;
And when upon the icy waste that host was backward cast,
On Beresina's bloody bridge his banner waved the last.
His valour shed victorious grace on all that dread retreat,
That path across the wilde'ring snow, athwart the blinding sleet;
And every follower of his sword could all endure and dare,
Becoming warriors strong in hope or stronger in despair.
Now, day and dark, along the storm the demon Cossacks
The hungriest must not look for food, the weariest must not
No rest, but death, for horse or man, whichever first shall
They see the flames destroy but ne'er may feel the saving fire.
Thus never closed the bitter night nor rose the savage morn,
But from that gallant company some noble part was shorn,
And, sick at heart, the Prince resolved to keep his purposed way,
With stedfast forward looks, nor count the losses of the day.
At length beside a black-burnt hut, an island of the snow,—
Each head in frigid stupor bent toward the saddle-bow,-
They paused, and of that sturdy troop, that thousand banded
At one unmeditated glance he numbered only ten.!
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