In that aspect sad and wrinkled, Saw your naked heart and loved you. With the beauty of his mother, With the courage of his father. 66 And the boy grew up and prospered, Made him little bows and arrows, All those birds with glossy feathers, For his little son to shoot at. Round and round they wheeled and darted, Filled the Evening Star with music, With their songs of joy and freedom; With the fluttering of their plumage; Till the boy, the little hunter, At his feet fell wounded sorely. 66 But, O wondrous transformation ! 'Twas no bird he saw before him, 'Twas a beautiful young woman, With the arrow in her bosom ! "When her blood tell on the planet. Powerless was the strange enchantment, On an island, green and grassy, After him he saw descending Then the birds, again transfigured, Took their shape, but not their stature ; "Still their glittering lodge is seen there, On the tranquil Summer evenings, And upon the shore the fisher Sometimes hears their happy voices, Sees them dancing in the star-light." THE WOLVES. TROWBRIDGE. YE who listen to stories told, When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, Of the lone wood-side, and the hungry pack That howls on the fainting traveler's track,— Flame-red eye balls that way lay, By the wint'ry moon, the belated sleigh, The lost child sought in the dismal wood, On the trampled snow,--O ye that hear, Wishing some angel had been sent Know ye the fiend that is crueller far Swiftly vanish the wild fleet tracks But hark to the coming of unseen feet, Each wolf that dies in the woodland brown By square and market they slink and prowl, All night they snuff and snarl, before They paw the clapboards and claw the latch, At every crevice they whine and scratch. Their tongues are subtle and long and thin, And they lap the living blood within. Icy keen are the teeth that tear, Children crouched in corners cold And start from sleep with bitter pangs Weary the mother and worn with strife, But her hand is feeble, and weapon small: In evil hour the daughter fled From her poor shelter and wretched bed. Through the city's pitiless solitude Fierce the father and grim with want, Frenzied stealing forth by night, He thought to smite the spectres dead, you that listen to stories told, When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, Weep no more at the tales you hear, The danger is close, and the wolves are near. Shudder not at the murderer's name, Pass not by with averted eye The door where the stricken children cry. But when the beat of the phantom feet Follow thou where the spectres glide; And be thyself the angel sent He giveth little who gives but tears, He does well in the forest wild Who slays the monster and saves the child; But he does better, and merits more, THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON. CHOATE. THE birthday of the "Father of his Country!" May it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts! May it ever re-awaken in them a filial veneration for his memory; ever re-kindle the fires of patriotic regard to the country which he loved so well; to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy, during the perilous period of the early Indian warfare; to which, he |