66 THE WRECK OF RIVERMOUTH. RIVERMOUTH Rocks are fair to see, By dawn or sunset shone across, When the ebb of the sea has left them free, And fair are the sunny isles in view Disk of a cloud the woodlands o'er; And southerly, when the tide is down, 'Twixt white sea-waves and sand-hills brown, "The beach-birds dance and the gray gulls wheel Over a floor of burnished steel. Once, in the old Colonial days, Two hundred years ago and more, A boat sailed down through the winding ways Sailing out on the summer sea, Veering to catch the land-breeze light, With the Boar to left, and the Rocks to right. In Hampton meadows, where mowers laid Their scythes to the swaths of salted grass, A young man sighed, who saw them pass. "Fie on the witch!" cried a merry girl, As they rounded the point where Goody Cole Sat by her door with her wheel atwirl, A bent and blear-eyed poor old soul. "Oho!" she muttered, "ye're brave to-day! But I hear the little waves laugh and say, 'The broth will be cold that waits at home; For it's one to go, but another to come!'' "She's cursed," said the skipper, "speak her fair: I'm scary always to see her shake Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair, And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake." But merrily still, with laugh and shout, From Hampton River the boat sailed out, Till the huts and the flakes on Star seemed nigh, They dropped their lines in the lazy tide, Then the skipper looked from the darkening sea But he spake like a brave man cheerily, "Yet there is time for our homeward run." The skipper hauled at the heavy sail: Goody Cole looked out from her door: The Isles of Shoals were drowned and gone, Scarcely she saw the Head of the Boar Toss the foam from tusks of stone. She clasped her hands with a grip of pain, The tear on her cheek was not of rain: "They are lost," she muttered, “boat and crew Lord, forgive me! my words were true!" Suddenly seaward swept the squall; The low sun smote through cloudy rack; The Shoals stood clear in the light, and all The trend of the coast lay hard and black. But far and wide as eye could reach, No life was seen upon wave or beach; The boat that went out at morning never Sailed back again into Hampton River. O mower, lean on thy bended snath, Look from the meadows green and low: The wind of the sea is a waft of death, The waves are singing a song of woe! Long and vain shall thy watching be: O Rivermouth Rocks, how sad a sight From sand and sea-weed where they lay. The mad old witch-wife wailed and wept, And cursed the tide as it backward crept: "Crawl back, crawl back, blue water-snake! Leave your dead for the hearts that break! Solemn it was in that old day In Hampton town and its log-built church, Where side by side the coffins lay And the mourners stood in aisle and porch. In the singing-seats young eyes were dim, A. The voices faltered that raised the hymn, And Father Dalton, grave and stern, Sobbed through his prayer and wept in turn. But his ancient colleague did not pray, Of his strong brows knitted to hide his tears. Cowered and shrank, while her neighbors thronged Apart with them, like them forbid, Old Goody Cole looked drearily round, As two by two, with their faces hid, The mourners walked to the burying-ground. She let the staff from her clasped hands fall: "Lord, forgive us! we're sinners all!" And the voice of the old man answered her: "Amen!" said Father Bachiler. So, as I sat upon Appledore In the calm of a closing summer day, And the sunset paled, and warmed once more In the east was moon-rise, with boats off-shore, THE MAIDS OF ATTITASH. IN sky and wave the white clouds swam, When, in the shadow of the ash They sat and watched in idle mood The gleam and shade of lake and wood,- Swan flocks of lilies shoreward lying, With careless ears they heard the plash The wood-bird's plaintive cry, The locust's sharp reply. And teased the while, with playful hand, Their baskets berry-filled. Then one, the beauty of whose eyes "No bridegroom's hand be mine to hold I own no lover poor. "My love must come on silken wings, The other, on whose modest head And voice exceeding sweet, |