THE BRIDAL OF PENNACOOK. Window-tracery, small and slight, And the night-stars glimmered down, Gloomed behind the changeless shade, By the solemn pine-wood made; Through the rugged palisade, In the open foreground planted, Glimpses came of rowers rowing, Stir of leaves and wild-flowers blowing, Steel-like gleams of water flowing, In the sunlight slanted. Here the mighty Bashaba, Held his long-unquestioned sway, To the great sea's sounding shore; There his spoils of chase and war, Lay beside his axe and bow; Nightly down the river going, And the squaw's dark eye burned brighter, And she drew her blanket tighter, For that chief had magic skill, Powers which bless and powers which ban, Wizard lord of Pennacook, Chiefs upon their war-path shook, Of that wise dark man. Tales of him the gray squaw told, When the winter night-wind cold Pierced her blanket's thickest fold, And the fire burned low and small, All the subtle spirits hiding Of all things which outward sense These the wizard's skill confessed, 27 Wind and cloud, and fire and flood; Burned for him the drifted snow, Bade through ice fresh lilies blow, And the leaves of summer grow Over winter's wood! Not untrue that tale of old! Moves the strong man still. Still, to such, life's elements Broken in their pathway lies; Still, to earnest souls, the sun Lights the battle-grounds of life; To his aid the strong reverses Hidden powers and giant forces, And the high stars, in their courses, Mingle in his strife! III. THE DAUGHTER. THE SOOt-black brows of men, -the yell Of women thronging round the bed, The tinkling charm of ring and shell, — The Powah whispering o'er the dead! All these the Sachem's home had known, When, on her journey long and wild To the dim World of Souls, alone, In her young beauty passed the mother of his child. Three bow-shots from the Sachem's dwelling They laid her in the walnut shade, Where a green hillock gently swelling Her fitting mound of burial made. There trailed the vine in summer hours, The tree-perched squirrel dropped his shell, ter's way; And dazzling in the summer noon The blade of her light oar threw off its shower of spray! Unknown to her the rigid rule, The weary torture of the school, Around the hunter's fire at night; Stars rose and set, and seasons rolled, Flowers bloomed and snow-flakes fell, unquestioned in her sight. Unknown to her the subtle skill With which the artist-eye can trace In rock and tree and lake and hill The outlines of divinest grace; Unknown the fine soul's keen unrest. Which sees, admires, yet yearns alway: THE BRIDAL OF PENNACOOK, Too closely on her mother's breast To note her smiles of love the child of Nature lay! It is enough for such to be Of common, natural things a part, In our cold homes of Art and Grieve like the stranger-tended child, Which seeks its mother's arms, and sees but feels them not. The garden rose may richly bloom The sweetbrier on the hillside Its single leaf and fainter hue, Untrained and wildly free, yet still a sister rose ! Thus o'er the heart of Weetamoo Their mingling shades of joy and ill The instincts of her nature threw, The savage was a woman still. Midst outlines dim of maiden schemes, Heart-colored prophecies of lite, Rose on the ground of her young dreams The light of a new home, -the lover and the wife. IV. THE WEDDING. COOL and dark fell the autumn night, But the Bashaba's wigwam glowed with light, For down from its roof by green withes hung Flaring and smoking the pine-knots swung. And along the river great wood-fires Shot into the night their long red spires, Showing behind the tall, dark wood, Flashing before on the sweeping flood. 29 In the changeful wind, with shimmer and shade, Now high, now low, that firelight played, On tree-leaves wet with evening dews, On gliding water and still canoes. The trapper that night on Turee's brook, And the weary fisher on Contoocook, Saw over the marshes and through the pine, And down on the river the dance-lights shine. For the Saugus Sachem had come to WOO The Bashaba's daughter Weetamoo, And laid at her father's feet that night His softest furs and wampum white. From the Crystal Hills to the fa southeast The river Sagamores came to the feast: And chiefs whose homes the sea-winds shook, Sat down on the mats of Pennacook. They came from Sunapee's shore of rock, From the snowy sources of Snooganock, And from rough Coos whose thick woods shake Their pine-cones in Umbagog Lake. From Ammonoosuc's mountain pass, Wild as his home, came Chepewass; And the Keenomps of the hills which throw Their shade on the Smile of Manito. With pipes of peace and bows unstrung, Glowing with paint came old and young, In wampum and furs and feathers arrayed To the dance and feast the Bashaba made. Bird of the air and beast of the field, All which the woods and waters yield, On dishes of birch and hemlock piled, Garnished and graced that banquet wild. Steaks of the brown bear fat and large From the rocky slopes of the Kearsarge; |