THE PROPHECY OF SAMUEL SEWALL. torts, Ruling as right the will of the strong, Deaf as Egypt's godsleek; Order of nature and law of God; Reverence folly, and awe misplaced; Justice of whom 't were in to seek As from Koordish robber or Syrian Sheik ! O, leave the wretch to hi bribes and sins; Let him rot in the web of li he spins! 273 "Praise and thanks for an honest man! Glory to God for the Puritan ! " I see, far southward, this quiet day, The hills of Newbury rolling away, With the many tints of the season gay, Dreamily blending in autumn mist Crimson, and gold, and amethyst. Long and low, with dwarf trees crowned, Plum Island lies, like a whale aground, A stone's toss over the narrow sound. Inland, as far as the eye can go, The hills curve round like a bended SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE. Pushed and pulled up the rocky lane, Shouting and singing the shrill refrain: "Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt, Torr'd an' futherr'd an' corr'd in a corrt By the women o' Morble'ead!" 275 Through the street, on either side, "Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt, Torr'd an' futherr'd an' corr'd in a corrt By the women o' Morble'ead!" Sweetly along the Salem road Of the fields so green and the sky so blue. Riding there in his sorry trim, "Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt, Torr'd an' futherr'd an' corr'd in a corrt By the women o' Morble'ead!” THE SYCAMORES. THE SYCAMORES. In the outskirts of the village, One long century hath been numbered, Deftly set to Celtic music, At his violin's sound they grew, Through the moonlit eves of summer, Making Amphion's fable true. Rise again, thou poor Hugh Tallant ! Pioneer of Erin's outcasts, How he wrought with spade and fiddle, Still the gay tradition mingles With a record grave and drear, Like the rolic air of Cluny, With the solemn march of Mear. When the box-tree, white with blossoms, Made the sweet May woodlands glad, And the Aronia by the river Lighted up the swarming shad, And the bulging nets swept shoreward, When, among the jovial huskers, Soft his Celtic measures vied. Songs of love and wailing lyke-wake, And the merry fair's carouse; Of the wild Red Fox of Erin By the blazing hearths of winter, 277 Pleasant seemed his simple tales, Midst the grimmer Yorkshire legends And the mountain myths of Wales. How the souls in Purgatory Scrambled up from fate forlorn, On St. Keven's sackcloth ladder, Slyly hitched to Satan's horn. Of the fiddler who at Tara Played all night to ghosts of kings; Of the brown dwarfs, and the fairies Dancing in their moorland rings ! Jolliest of our birds of singing, Best he loved the Bob-o-link. "Hush!" he 'd say, "the tipsy fairies! Hear the little folks in drink!" Merry-faced, with spade and fiddle, Singing through the ancient town, Only this, of poor Hugh Tallant, Hath Tradition handed down. Not a stone his grave discloses ; Green memorials of the gleeman ! Linking still the river-shores, With their shadows cast by sunset, Stand Hugh Tallant's sycamores! When the Father of his Country Through the north-land riding came, And the roofs were starred with banners, And the steeples rang acclaim, When each war-scarred Continental, Slowly passed that august Presence Down the thronged and shouting street; Village girls as white as angels, |