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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: The Dance of Dinwiddie</p> -<p>Author: Marshall Moreton</p> -<p>Release Date: July 7, 2021 [eBook #65786]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DANCE OF DINWIDDIE***</p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Sonya Schermann, David E. Brown,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/danceofdinwiddie00more - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="50%" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - - -<h1>The Dance of Dinwiddie</h1> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">There the dancers had come on the evening before.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/titleillo.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<p><span class="antiqua"><span class="xxlarge">The Dance of Dinwiddie</span></span></p> - -<p>BY<br /> -<span class="large">MARSHALL MORETON</span></p> - - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/titlelogo.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<p>STEWART & KIDD COMPANY<br /> -PUBLISHERS <span class="gap"> CINCINNATI</span></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/verso.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY<br /> -MARSHALL MORETON</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="antiqua"><span class="large">The Dance of Dinwiddie</span></span></h2> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_05.jpg" alt="" /></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><p class="drop-cap">A HOUSE and a barn on an acre of ground—</p></div> -<div class="verse">And there wasn’t another of either around</div> -<div class="verse">Save the houses afloat that went flying apast,</div> -<div class="verse">For the waters had closed all around them at last.</div> -<div class="verse">There the dancers had come on the ev’ning before</div> -<div class="verse">In their high-seated wagon—a full score or more,</div> -<div class="verse">With fiddlers and one they called “Oracle,” who</div> -<div class="verse">Was a modern Sebastian Cerezo, and knew</div> -<div class="verse">(About dancing and things) more than any one ’round</div> -<div class="verse">In the house or the barn on the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Twas at the great bend near the town of Dinwiddie</div> -<div class="verse">On the banks of the river Ohio, and giddy,</div> -<div class="verse">The gay, dizzy dance, like a far-away echo,</div> -<div class="verse">Seems laughing to me of a time long ago,</div> -<div class="verse">In the merry round waltz and the songs for the reels,</div> -<div class="verse">In the “Oracle’s” rhymes that were slicker than eels,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> -<div class="verse">And the snug little town whence the dancers had come</div> -<div class="verse">On the evening before to the old country home,</div> -<div class="verse">Is as fresh to my mind as the tall trees around</div> -<div class="verse">The frame house and the barn on the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There the tall trees are standing, still standing alone</div> -<div class="verse">Like sentinels now, and are now taller grown,</div> -<div class="verse">Where once was the homestead. How often I’m told</div> -<div class="verse">By the boatmen who traveled the river of old,</div> -<div class="verse">That they never can pass round the great sweeping bend</div> -<div class="verse">But the dance is recalled, and they think of the end</div> -<div class="verse">That so suddenly came to the cherished old place;</div> -<div class="verse">They note the tall trees as its last lingering trace—</div> -<div class="verse">Their long branches waving as if in a trance</div> -<div class="verse">From a waltz they had caught on the night of the dance.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There often the town folks, still curious, stray</div> -<div class="verse">To look o’er the place on a summery day,</div> -<div class="verse">Recounting the story when nearing the sight,</div> -<div class="verse">And some one will tell of the dance of that night,</div> -<div class="verse">Of the dancers who came there that evening before—</div> -<div class="verse">Not thinking the river could rise any more—</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> -<div class="verse">Will sing the reel songs and will point to the place</div> -<div class="verse">Where once stood the house on that now crumbling base</div> -<div class="verse">When caught in the flood on that night without warning</div> -<div class="verse">To the dancers within till the dawn of the morning.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Twas a house of firm structure, but fashioned quite plain,</div> -<div class="verse">With its hallway, its rooms and a roof ’gainst the rain,</div> -<div class="verse">With a story below and a story above,</div> -<div class="verse">And the rooms were all ample and wide; but the love</div> -<div class="verse">For the house was of measure far more than its worth.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas the mem’ries that ever recurred for its hearth</div> -<div class="verse">That made it so precious. I love to recall</div> -<div class="verse">The long row of windows, the doorway and hall,</div> -<div class="verse">And fondly thought lingers—in fancy I see</div> -<div class="verse">The trees that seem nodding and laughing to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The farm swept the valley to right and to left</div> -<div class="verse">For a mile to the hill where the quarry was cleft.</div> -<div class="verse">From the house to the hill it was level and low,</div> -<div class="verse">And oft in the spring-time the flood-tide would grow</div> -<div class="verse">Till the back-waters covered the fields at their will,</div> -<div class="verse">But they lay there as peaceful and placid and still</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> -<div class="verse">As the mountain lakes seem, then, as if in a dream,</div> -<div class="verse">They would gently recede as they followed the stream;</div> -<div class="verse">And the house and the barn that were built on a mound</div> -<div class="verse">Overlooked the great river and all of the ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Twas Twilleger’s farm. It was Twilleger’s way</div> -<div class="verse">To give a big dance and be joyous and gay</div> -<div class="verse">In the early spring season. It did his soul good</div> -<div class="verse">To gather around him the whole neighborhood;</div> -<div class="verse">For Twilley (they called him) had ways of his own,</div> -<div class="verse">And except a few servants, he lived quite alone.</div> -<div class="verse">In the early spring season, when cider grows harder,</div> -<div class="verse">He would stock up his cellar and also his larder,</div> -<div class="verse">And then would invite the gay dancers to come</div> -<div class="verse">From out of the town to the old country home.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For a week, ere the night of the dance, a high tide</div> -<div class="verse">Of water had covered the farm to the side</div> -<div class="verse">Of a road running out from the house to the hill.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas receding, they said—it was even and still.</div> -<div class="verse">Yet the sky had been sullen and surcharged with rain,</div> -<div class="verse">And there was an unrest at the threatening gain</div> -<div class="verse">Of the waters that leaped o’er the banks at the shore</div> -<div class="verse">To a point that was higher than known of before,</div> -<div class="verse">For the early spring thaw of the deep-lying snow</div> -<div class="verse">In the mountains augmented the high overflow.</div> -</div></div></div> - - - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fp_08.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">They were coming, were coming.</p> - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> -<div class="verse">But the clear sky it left when the sun had declined</div> -<div class="verse">On the eve of the dance reassured every mind.</div> -<div class="verse">How balmy and sweet was the evening! How fair</div> -<div class="verse">Was the face of all nature that smiled everywhere!</div> -<div class="verse">Far out on the highway their voices rang clear</div> -<div class="verse">As the dancers were coming with song and a cheer</div> -<div class="verse">In their wagon that rumbled along with its load.</div> -<div class="verse">They were coming, were coming far down on the road,</div> -<div class="verse">And to meet them, away ran the great baying hound</div> -<div class="verse">To lead them down home to the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There the dancers were welcomed by Twilley soon after,</div> -<div class="verse">Where they filled all the rooms with a chatter and laughter.</div> -<div class="verse">Their sparkling bright eyes showed their fine healthy thriving,</div> -<div class="verse">And joyous and mirthful, their wits were soon striving,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span> -<div class="verse">And many sly banters and rail’ries were given</div> -<div class="verse">To lovers, that were in turn back again driven,</div> -<div class="verse">For some of them loved to be told of their love,</div> -<div class="verse">Whilst others were shy and as mild as a dove,</div> -<div class="verse">And just as soft-cooing—to some there’s a pleasure</div> -<div class="verse">In hiding their love as the birds hide their treasure.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Now most of the women who came from the town</div> -<div class="verse">Were sweetly suburban in manner and gown,</div> -<div class="verse">Though none the less merry or jauntily gay,</div> -<div class="verse">Whilst some were profuse in a brilliant display.</div> -<div class="verse">Selina! Selina was there! Were there ever</div> -<div class="verse">Such eyes as Selina’s? No wonder the river</div> -<div class="verse">Crept higher and higher to bask in the light</div> -<div class="verse">Of her dark, rolling eyes. No wonder that night</div> -<div class="verse">That the stars faded fast and from envy withdrew,</div> -<div class="verse">For her eyes were far brighter—they every one knew.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ah, the runaway laugh of Louisa still rings</div> -<div class="verse">Like a merry and lingering echo. It brings</div> -<div class="verse">Recollections of pink-glowing cheeks, and a girl</div> -<div class="verse">Whose fun-loving spell set the house in a whirl,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> -<div class="verse">As her laughter ran riot and touched everywhere,</div> -<div class="verse">Till Amanda, the chaperon, with dignified air</div> -<div class="verse">And a fine, arching brow, was compelled to unbend</div> -<div class="verse">And to follow the frivolous, frolicsome trend</div> -<div class="verse">Of a something she knew not—she wasn’t half sure</div> -<div class="verse">If she laughed with Louisa or just at her laughter.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But ’tis needless to point all their feminine graces,</div> -<div class="verse">Or with blund’ring endeavor to profile their faces,</div> -<div class="verse">For every one knows where the prodigal nature</div> -<div class="verse">Once lavished the rarest of all of her treasure;</div> -<div class="verse">Where she hung the steep hill in a moment of leisure,</div> -<div class="verse">And dreamed the sweet valleys with lingering pleasure;</div> -<div class="verse">She smiled, and the streamlets will run there forever</div> -<div class="verse">And yield their full measure to form the great river;</div> -<div class="verse">But how void were the hills and the valleys and waters,</div> -<div class="verse">Till she brought there the fairest of all of her daughters.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">All the beauties were there from the strath-haven town,</div> -<div class="verse">And some were so queenly they lacked but the crown;</div> -<div class="verse">And the men, while of no very special great talent,</div> -<div class="verse">There was yet a lieutenant with airs that were gallant.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> -<div class="verse">There was also a wit who was quite proud of it,</div> -<div class="verse">Who teased an old bachelor—not sociable a bit,</div> -<div class="verse">For love so absorbed him he smiled and was mute,</div> -<div class="verse">While Malinda just laughed and encouraged his suit,</div> -<div class="verse">Till the heart of the bachelor grew light as a feather,</div> -<div class="verse">And he and Malinda drew closer together.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And even the cynical Simon was won</div> -<div class="verse">As the chatter of dancers went merrily on,</div> -<div class="verse">Till once he laughed loudly and ever so jolly—</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas all on account of the popular Polly.</div> -<div class="verse">Tim Dolor, the bashful, was quite at his ease,</div> -<div class="verse">And every one there seemed as easy to please,</div> -<div class="verse">And every face beamed with a broadening smile</div> -<div class="verse">That broke into ripples of laughter the while,</div> -<div class="verse">As the men chose their partners some time in advance</div> -<div class="verse">Of the fiddles that had to be tuned for the dance.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ah, the little sly glances that gave the love-token,</div> -<div class="verse">The soft-whispered words by the fond lovers spoken.</div> -<div class="verse">Whilst some were coquetting by way of diversion,</div> -<div class="verse">There were others inclined to an earnest assertion,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> -<div class="verse">As around through the rooms and the halls they would ramble;</div> -<div class="verse">The Bold Roland Rare in a light-footed amble,</div> -<div class="verse">With an air of a fine condescending compassion,</div> -<div class="verse">Gave the latest new step that had come into fashion;</div> -<div class="verse">And some fell to giving and guessing new riddles</div> -<div class="verse">While the fumbling old fiddlers were fixing their fiddles.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Twice, thrice, had the band leader sprung to his feet</div> -<div class="verse">To call for attention, while deftly he beat</div> -<div class="verse">On the back of his fiddle, then drew a swift bow</div> -<div class="verse">’Crost its sensitive strings that the players might know</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas time to begin, but a fiddle-string snapped</div> -<div class="verse">And put things awry every time that he rapped;</div> -<div class="verse">Then tuning and strumming would vie with the horn</div> -<div class="verse">That was screeching a monotone strange and forlorn,</div> -<div class="verse">While Cupid accepted the timely delay</div> -<div class="verse">To lead the fond lovers aside and away.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And meanwhile the “Oracle” wrote some new rhymes</div> -<div class="verse">For the dances. Said he, “I write better at times.</div> -<div class="verse">My old rhymes were good, to be sure, some were fine,</div> -<div class="verse">Very fine—you could hardly find fault with a line.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> -<div class="verse">On occasions like this, I write new ones,” said he,</div> -<div class="verse">“For everything here is inspiring to me.</div> -<div class="verse">I can write of the things that I see on the spot,</div> -<div class="verse">And the dancers will notice that when I take thought,</div> -<div class="verse">I just leap upon Pegasus, speed him along,</div> -<div class="verse">Till my fancies go rhyming and turn to a song.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“I’m a very great poet, as every one knows.</div> -<div class="verse">See how dreamy I look, and how long my hair grows.</div> -<div class="verse">I talk in a rhythm that’s classical, too.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twere a marvel to tell all the things I can do.</div> -<div class="verse">I can dance every jig of the day or tradition,</div> -<div class="verse">But while dancing alone is my greatest ambition,</div> -<div class="verse">I often indulge in the light recreation</div> -<div class="verse">Of keeping the river at just its right station,</div> -<div class="verse">So that floods at Dinwiddie occasion no worry—</div> -<div class="verse">I have them subside when they get o’er their flurry.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Twas a story oft told, though it hardly deceived,</div> -<div class="verse">That the “Oracle” could—which he doubtless believed—</div> -<div class="verse">Make the rising Ohio floods quickly subside</div> -<div class="verse">When he stretched forth his hand and commanded the tide.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> -<div class="verse">’Twas a great feat of magic, and if he seemed vain,</div> -<div class="verse">His pride was forgiven again and again,</div> -<div class="verse">For as often as flood-waters threatened the town,</div> -<div class="verse">It was well understood why the tide had gone down;</div> -<div class="verse">And for his dance-calling and mystical lore,</div> -<div class="verse">His neighbors yclept him the title he bore.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">All were merry that night. They proceeded to tear</div> -<div class="verse">Up the carpets and rugs so the floor would be bare</div> -<div class="verse">For quadrilles and the reels that they all loved so well;</div> -<div class="verse">And the lovers who danced—but there’s no use to dwell</div> -<div class="verse">Upon that, for all lovers are happy who dance</div> -<div class="verse">To the music and whirl with a dizzy side glance.</div> -<div class="verse">So the “Oracle” called from a platform to stand on,</div> -<div class="verse">And they danced to his rhymes with a heedless abandon,</div> -<div class="verse">While the waters were leaving an Island becrowned</div> -<div class="verse">With a house and a barn on an acre of ground.</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> -</div></div></div> - - - -<p class="center"><span class="floatleft">(<i>The Oracle Calls.</i>)</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And bend the knee in courtesy</div> -<div class="indent">To sweethearts and your lovers true;</div> -<div class="verse">Next two, with lilting gayety,</div> -<div class="indent">The center glide away; now you</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> -<div class="verse">May nimbly trip back to your place,</div> -<div class="indent">And balance all—the even time</div> -<div class="verse">Will bring you once more face to face</div> -<div class="indent">To listen to my “old-time” reeling rhyme.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Come hither, pretty maid and swain,</div> -<div class="indent">It is your turn; tiptoe with grace</div> -<div class="verse">Adown the center lover’s lane;</div> -<div class="indent">With easy turn once more to place,</div> -<div class="verse">And now obeisance make to all,</div> -<div class="indent">And sweethearts courtesy; with rhyme</div> -<div class="verse">And melody, Oh, hear my call</div> -<div class="indent">To dance around your “Oracle” this time.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Go flutter like the turtle bird,</div> -<div class="verse">Don’t try to fly—’twould be absurd.</div> -<div class="verse">To me there’s music in the chime</div> -<div class="verse">Of twinkling feet with even time.</div> -<div class="verse">Lieutenant Love, lead home thy dove,</div> -<div class="verse">(The flood is falling up above),</div> -<div class="verse">And have her bring an olive sprall</div> -<div class="verse">To prove the flood was but a waterfall.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> -<div class="verse">(O, cynic Simon, have a care;</div> -<div class="verse">Twice have you jostled Roland Rare</div> -<div class="verse">With elbows angled in the air;</div> -<div class="verse">It seems that Polly’s witching face</div> -<div class="verse">Has so beguiled you with its grace</div> -<div class="verse">That you have lost your time and place.)</div> -<div class="verse">Fly low, my turtle doves, fly low;</div> -<div class="verse">To right and left and form the double row.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And bend the knee in courtesy,</div> -<div class="verse">(There was a sometime prophesy)</div> -<div class="verse">Your turn sweet bach, Malindy, too.</div> -<div class="verse">(And some have thought it would come true,</div> -<div class="verse">That floods would some day higher swell</div> -<div class="verse">To sweep the valley where we dwell).</div> -<div class="verse">Sweet bachelor, prance down the lane,</div> -<div class="verse">And with you bring Malindy home again.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And balance all—the even time</div> -<div class="verse">Will fill the measure to my rhyme.</div> -<div class="verse">(But when the floods shall see my wand,</div> -<div class="verse">Obedient to my one command,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> -<div class="verse">They’ll very soon recede, you’ll find</div> -<div class="verse">As heretofore they have declined)</div> -<div class="verse">Once more, my cooing doves, once more</div> -<div class="verse">Go tell your love-lorn tales as round you soar.</div> -</div></div></div> - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="verse">They danced till the “Oracle” said they were through;</div> -<div class="verse">If he ran out of rhymes not a soul of them knew;</div> -<div class="verse">No one doubted at all he could go on forever,</div> -<div class="verse">And ev’ry one thought he was wondrously clever;</div> -<div class="verse">Then some one called out for the “Old Gallantry;”</div> -<div class="verse">“Oh! ‘The Sweet Harry Lee,’ let us dance ‘Harry Lee,’”</div> -<div class="verse">Then, they ev’ry one cried, for it fit their feet neatly</div> -<div class="verse">To dance, while it suited their voices completely;</div> -<div class="verse">They sang and they danced and there was a resound</div> -<div class="verse">That was everywhere heard on the acre of ground.</div> -</div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<p class="center"><span class="floatleft">(<i>The Sweet Harry Lee.</i>)</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, have you seen Sweet Harry Lee</div> -<div class="indent">With airs so light and breezy,</div> -<div class="verse">And such a gentle courtesy</div> -<div class="indent">That seems so soft and easy?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> -<div class="verse">He is so tall and straight and trim</div> -<div class="indent">With military talent,</div> -<div class="verse">And all the girls run after him,</div> -<div class="indent">Because he is so gallant.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For Harry is a soldier bold,</div> -<div class="indent">And he’s a great defender,</div> -<div class="verse">But when to me his love he told,</div> -<div class="indent">His eyes were O, so tender.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And Harry is so daring, too,</div> -<div class="indent">I’ve heard it very often,</div> -<div class="verse">But when he tells his love so true,</div> -<div class="indent">His voice will seem to soften.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There’s none can love like Harry Lee,</div> -<div class="indent">And none can be so merry,</div> -<div class="verse">And then his pleasing gallantry,</div> -<div class="indent">So witching and so airy.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, have you seen sweet Harry Lee,</div> -<div class="indent">Who calls me “Little Fairy?”</div> -<div class="verse">In camp and field, he says, ’tis me</div> -<div class="indent">He’s coming home to marry.</div> -<hr class="tb" /> -</div></div></div> - - - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> -<div class="verse">Then the waltz! Ah the waltz! What ravishing pleasure</div> -<div class="verse">They felt in the waltz as they reveled its measure,</div> -<div class="verse">And how their blood surged with ecstatic sensation</div> -<div class="verse">As their dancing feet caught its enchanting creation</div> -<div class="verse">Till it bore them, as if, on a smooth gliding stream,</div> -<div class="verse">Enraptured away in a beautiful dream;</div> -<div class="verse">And the doting old bach’lor rode high on the tide</div> -<div class="verse">As he held up Malindy real close to his side—</div> -<div class="verse">To furnish the witling whose tongue couldn’t rest,</div> -<div class="verse">A subject to turn to an infinite jest.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The witling was jealous, ’twas laughingly said,</div> -<div class="verse">And it may have been true, for the fine posing head</div> -<div class="verse">Of Malinda was wise and more subtlely schemed</div> -<div class="verse">Than the wittiest lover has ever yet dreamed;</div> -<div class="verse">She could even walk lame to seem easily caught,</div> -<div class="verse">And many a lover who ardently sought</div> -<div class="verse">To o’ertake her gave up at the last in despair</div> -<div class="verse">When he found that her halting was only a snare,</div> -<div class="verse">And a month she’d been leading the witling a chase</div> -<div class="verse">When she tagged the old bachelor to run in the race.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> -<div class="verse">So what could he do but to fall in the lair</div> -<div class="verse">Of her sudden side glance or her innocent stare?</div> -<div class="verse">Then away ran the bachelor along with the wit,</div> -<div class="verse">And he nearly caught up when she halted a bit,</div> -<div class="verse">And it was no great wonder the witling was peeved—</div> -<div class="verse">He was being outrun, as he plainly perceived.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas but nat’ral for him to give vent to his spleen,</div> -<div class="verse">And no one could say, but it really seemed mean</div> -<div class="verse">For Malindy to dance and be acting as though</div> -<div class="verse">She was tickled to death with a homelier beau.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But the kindly Neoma was there and alert;</div> -<div class="verse">She saw the great wit with his proud feelings hurt,</div> -<div class="verse">And smiling, she beckoned him over her way,</div> -<div class="verse">Where she flattered his pride as a clever girl may,</div> -<div class="verse">Till he told all he knew and a score of things more,</div> -<div class="verse">Which Neoma, still smiling, as patiently bore;</div> -<div class="verse">She sympathized with him. There often is found</div> -<div class="verse">A sweet-tempered girl who will care for the wound</div> -<div class="verse">Of a lover who loses, and teach him a sanity new,</div> -<div class="verse">And sometimes restore his old vanity, too.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Now Malindy had genius; she too had a smile</div> -<div class="verse">For all the sweet bachelor said, and the while,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> -<div class="verse">She hadn’t neglected to listen as well</div> -<div class="verse">To every old yarn that the witling could tell,</div> -<div class="verse">And at the right moment she turned a side glance,</div> -<div class="verse">Which must have meant something, for off in a prance</div> -<div class="verse">It started the witling again to the chase</div> -<div class="verse">More hopeful than ever of winning the race;</div> -<div class="verse">And Malindy led off with her favorite song</div> -<div class="verse">And with her the witling went smiling along.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p> </p> -<h3>MALINDY’S SONG</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">When I was young I often heard</div> -<div class="indent">There was no sign or token</div> -<div class="verse">By which to know a lover’s word</div> -<div class="indent">Would not be shortly broken.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I feared to trust love to entwine</div> -<div class="indent">Without a due reflection</div> -<div class="verse">Around this foolish heart of mine</div> -<div class="indent">To ravish its affection.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I thought ’twould rob my peace of mind</div> -<div class="indent">And force the tear to trickle</div> -<div class="verse">Upon a fading cheek to find</div> -<div class="indent">The love I loved was fickle.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> -<div class="verse">And yet it seemed that if I knew</div> -<div class="indent">A lover not ungraceful</div> -<div class="verse">And I could feel that he was true,</div> -<div class="indent">I’d surely be as faithful.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And really, once there came a beau</div> -<div class="indent">Who wooed me very kindly,</div> -<div class="verse">But love is blind, I said, and oh!</div> -<div class="indent">I feared to love so blindly.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And yet it seemed that very day</div> -<div class="indent">I found my heart relenting,</div> -<div class="verse">But he was gone, Oh, gone away!</div> -<div class="indent">And I was left repenting.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">So, often now there comes a day</div> -<div class="indent">I seem to be expecting</div> -<div class="verse">That love will come and come to stay,</div> -<div class="indent">For I have quit reflecting.</div> -<hr class="tb" /> -</div></div></div> - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“There’s no use reflecting”—a sort of refrain</div> -<div class="verse">That went ’round the room and repeated again</div> -<div class="verse">When the dancing was over. “I’m always reflecting,”</div> -<div class="verse">Said Roland, quite proudly. “I think you’re expecting</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> -<div class="verse">That some one will love you,” laughed shy Letha Lane,</div> -<div class="verse">“How sad it would be if she loved you in vain!”</div> -<div class="verse">“I should think it were sadder,” the great witling said,</div> -<div class="verse">“If loving bold Roland, bold Roland she’d wed.”</div> -<div class="verse">With a little small wit—a supposed repartee,</div> -<div class="verse">Thus every one went on their own merry way.<hr class="tb" /></div> - - - -<div class="verse">They gathered in groups, as you’ve seen dancers do,</div> -<div class="verse">Discussing a well-worn gossip or two;</div> -<div class="verse">Louisa was telling a personal affair</div> -<div class="verse">Which Neoma was hearing with sisterly care.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas a subject some slyly had whispered in jest;</div> -<div class="verse">Louisa denied it at first, then confessed</div> -<div class="verse">To a folly her heart would no longer conceal,</div> -<div class="verse">Which most girls, though dying, would scarcely reveal—</div> -<div class="verse">Confession’s a troublesome thing in our youth—</div> -<div class="verse">But see how Louisa could tell the whole truth.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>LOUISA’S STORY</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">They tell I passed the store six times to-day</div> -<div class="verse">And just to get a glimpse of Alfred Gray.</div> -<div class="verse">The very idea of such a thing!</div> -<div class="verse">And them a going round a tattling</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> -<div class="verse">As though it all were true! It isn’t fair;</div> -<div class="verse">But let them talk, I’m sure I do not care.</div> -<div class="verse">Why, as I passed the store I looked away</div> -<div class="verse">And never even thought of Alfred Gray.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Now let me see. ’Tis about a month or so</div> -<div class="verse">Since Alfred called—’tis just a month ago.</div> -<div class="verse">I didn’t say a word to him that night</div> -<div class="verse">Of what I’d heard, but acted gay and light,</div> -<div class="verse">And wasn’t jealous, either—not a bit,</div> -<div class="verse">Not the least, little tiny speck of it.</div> -<div class="verse">I talked and laughed, but as he went away</div> -<div class="verse">I said, “You’ll get a letter, Alfred Gray.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And that was all I said, except, of course, “Good-bye,”</div> -<div class="verse">But after he was gone—I don’t know why—</div> -<div class="verse">I angry grew and wrote that letter then.</div> -<div class="verse">I told him what I thought of all the men,</div> -<div class="verse">And ’bout him calling on my Cousin Kate;</div> -<div class="verse">Said I, “It isn’t jealousy, but hate,</div> -<div class="verse">That prompts me now to write to you this way,</div> -<div class="verse">So cease your calling on me, Alfred Gray.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> -<div class="verse">Next morn I sent the letter off to town,</div> -<div class="verse">And Cousin Kate, she heard how I’d gone down</div> -<div class="verse">And how I’d begged the postal clerk in vain</div> -<div class="verse">For him to give the letter back again;</div> -<div class="verse">Of course, it was a silly thing in me,</div> -<div class="verse">But then it really looked like jealousy,</div> -<div class="verse">And worried me to think of it that way—</div> -<div class="verse">Not that I cared at all for Alfred Gray.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And when my Cousin Kate came round to call,</div> -<div class="verse">She sat up straight, and prim, and proud, and tall,</div> -<div class="verse">But I could see a twinkle in her eye,</div> -<div class="verse">As after while she bluntly asked me why</div> -<div class="verse">I worried ’bout that letter I had sent.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas then that all the anger in me pent</div> -<div class="verse">Burst forth; I said in my <i>severest</i> way,</div> -<div class="verse">“’Tis you who came ’twixt me and Alfred Gray.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Kate frowned at first, and then she laughed outright,</div> -<div class="verse">And said that maybe she could throw some light</div> -<div class="verse">Upon the mystery that troubled so.</div> -<div class="verse">A friend of hers she said, not long ago,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> -<div class="verse">Who looked like Alfred, came to call on her—</div> -<div class="verse">He looked like Alfred, only handsomer,</div> -<div class="verse">She laughed—and people talked—it is their way—</div> -<div class="verse">They took the handsome man for Alfred Gray.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then Kate pretended dignity</div> -<div class="verse">And wounded feelings, too, and teasing me,</div> -<div class="verse">She said, it hurt her—what I said—and sighed,</div> -<div class="verse">Till both began to laugh—and then I cried,</div> -<div class="verse">For though I knew Kate told the truth to me,</div> -<div class="verse">It added still to my perplexity</div> -<div class="verse">If I should then attempt to tell the way</div> -<div class="verse">It all had come about to Alfred Gray.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I felt so ’shamed in writing Alfred, then</div> -<div class="verse">And he’s so stubborn, too, like most the men,</div> -<div class="verse">He hasn’t written me a line as yet.</div> -<div class="verse">I maybe do sometimes a little fret,</div> -<div class="verse">And maybe, though it does seem very bold,</div> -<div class="verse">(You must not tell, or else I’ll know who told)</div> -<div class="verse">I may have passed the store six times to-day</div> -<div class="verse">To get a <i>little</i> glimpse of Alfred Gray.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><hr class="tb" /> - -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> -<div class="verse">It had all been arranged and ’twas timed to the hour</div> -<div class="verse">For Amanda to dance with the old bachelor,</div> -<div class="verse">The chap’ron, ’twas said, had a song of her own;</div> -<div class="verse">She expected, of course, to have sung it alone,</div> -<div class="verse">And though she led off in a rather high key,</div> -<div class="verse">The dancers all joined her with boisterous glee,</div> -<div class="verse">For they slyly had conned it the evening before;</div> -<div class="verse">And they made it the jolliest dance on the floor,</div> -<div class="verse">And though she protested, it all was in vain,</div> -<div class="verse">They began it all over and sang it again.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>THE CHAPERON’S SONG</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Tis not because I couldn’t have,</div> -<div class="indent">For laws! I’ve had my chances;</div> -<div class="verse">Nor can I say I wouldn’t have,</div> -<div class="indent">If some had made advances.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But that’s the way it’s always been</div> -<div class="indent">In my experiences;</div> -<div class="verse">I never caught among the men</div> -<div class="indent">The proper person’s glances.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> -<div class="verse">And goodness knows, I’ve often said,</div> -<div class="indent">Nor would I now deny it,</div> -<div class="verse">’Tis better far for one to wed</div> -<div class="indent">Or do her best to try it;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But if she fails to find her mate,</div> -<div class="indent">Or finding, fails to bind him,</div> -<div class="verse">It may turn out a better fate</div> -<div class="indent">To never have to mind him.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For now I’m of a certain age,</div> -<div class="indent">Or “old,” as you may view it;</div> -<div class="verse">And single still, up to this stage</div> -<div class="indent">I’ve never seemed to rue it.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Still, ’twasn’t that I wouldn’t have</div> -<div class="indent">If some had made advances,</div> -<div class="verse">Nor can I say I couldn’t have,</div> -<div class="indent">For laws! I’ve had my chances.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It was fine, it was jolly, and no one could tell</div> -<div class="verse">How it all came about that the chaperon fell;</div> -<div class="verse">It seemed that her hoops, near the end of the dance,</div> -<div class="verse">Got caught on the knob of a door by a chance,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> -<div class="verse">And the knob being firm and the hoops being strong</div> -<div class="verse">The hoops had to stay where they didn’t belong.</div> -<div class="verse">The chaperon tripped and she tumbled, of course,</div> -<div class="verse">But was up in a trice, looking not so much worse</div> -<div class="verse">While the dancers all laughed but she kept on a-singing</div> -<div class="verse">And never looked back where the hoops were still clinging.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It was a mistake and the chaperon knew</div> -<div class="verse">That she should not have sung—she apologized, too—</div> -<div class="verse">There’s no one can tell what the young people think</div> -<div class="verse">When their elders look sidewise on folly to wink—</div> -<div class="verse">’Tis a gap in the fences that leads to the clover,</div> -<div class="verse">And the dignified ruling of prudence is over.</div> -<div class="verse">They cut up—that’s nothing, they carried it on</div> -<div class="verse">Till Malindy, ashamed of the things that were done,</div> -<div class="verse">Took the bachelor out for a short, quiet walk</div> -<div class="verse">And lectured him soundly on orderly talk</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And then he behaved—’tis a marvelous thing</div> -<div class="verse">What order from chaos a woman can bring;</div> -<div class="verse">But Malindy, of course, had a very wise head</div> -<div class="verse">And none ever knew of the thing that she said</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> -<div class="verse">When she took her short stroll with the bachelor. Well,</div> -<div class="verse">There were others to conquer, the wit had a spell,</div> -<div class="verse">But she mastered him quickly and put him to rout</div> -<div class="verse">By looking askance and pretending to pout.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas a trick of Malindy’s—the girls of Dinwiddie</div> -<div class="verse">All knew it, they laughed and they laughed, oh, so giddy.</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="verse">Tim Dolor, the bashful, could sing very well</div> -<div class="verse">When once he was rid of his timorous spell;</div> -<div class="verse">They coaxed him and pulled him, and though he was shy,</div> -<div class="verse">They would not release him until he would try;</div> -<div class="verse">But his voice had the ring of a poor, distressed call,</div> -<div class="verse">And the wail of his song was pathetic to all,</div> -<div class="verse">For the eyes of Selina had pierced the boy’s heart;</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas also her smile that had speeded the dart.</div> -<div class="verse">Poor Dolor was love-sick, as ev’ry one knew,</div> -<div class="verse">And his sad song was drowned in the tears that it drew.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span></p> - - -<h3>TIM DOLOR’S SONG</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh! mother, mother, my poor heart</div> -<div class="indent">Is all but now a-breaking;</div> -<div class="verse">I’ve seen a girl with such an art</div> -<div class="indent">Of ways that were so taking.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I thought her smiles were meant for me;</div> -<div class="indent">I foolishly grew bolder,</div> -<div class="verse">When from that hour ’twas plain to see</div> -<div class="indent">Her smiles were growing colder.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I loved her so, she was so fair;</div> -<div class="indent">With eyes that shone so brightly,</div> -<div class="verse">And such a dream of golden hair</div> -<div class="indent">That curled and clustered lightly.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">She was so fair, I loved her so—</div> -<div class="indent">I may have been too daring—</div> -<div class="verse">I told her of my love, but oh!</div> -<div class="indent">She said she wasn’t caring.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> -<div class="verse">Oh! make my bed and make it high,</div> -<div class="indent">So that I there may smother</div> -<div class="verse">Some of these heart-aches while I lie</div> -<div class="indent">Among the feathers, mother.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But mother, mother, do not cry</div> -<div class="indent">For this, your boy’s undoing,</div> -<div class="verse">If ’mong the feathers I should die</div> -<div class="indent">I’ll not regret my wooing.</div> - -</div></div></div> - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="verse">’Twas midnight; the tables were spread to regale,</div> -<div class="verse">Then followed a story, a song and some ale;</div> -<div class="verse">The “Oracle” sang of a magical stream</div> -<div class="verse">That murmured a strangely mysterious theme;</div> -<div class="verse">The shy Letha Lane and the bold Roland Rare</div> -<div class="verse">Gave a song and a dance that was passingly fair,</div> -<div class="verse">And so plaintive and sad was the sweet bachelor</div> -<div class="verse">When he sang of the valley he came from afar,</div> -<div class="verse">That Malindy confessed, though she couldn’t tell why,</div> -<div class="verse">It affected her so that she almost could cry.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span></p> - -<h3>THE HAPPY HOLLOW DREAM</h3> - - -<p class="center">(<i>By the “Oracle.”</i>)</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There’s an unfrequented valley</div> -<div class="verse">In the mountain of Somally,</div> -<div class="indent">Where the skies so lulling seem,</div> -<div class="verse">That they call the “Happy Hollow,”</div> -<div class="verse">And you’ll find it if you follow</div> -<div class="indent">Up an ever-winding stream.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There if ever you should wander,</div> -<div class="verse">Linger for awhile to ponder</div> -<div class="indent">By the subtle flowing stream,</div> -<div class="verse">Winding over rude or mallow,</div> -<div class="verse">Where it murmurs deep or shallow</div> -<div class="indent">Of a strange, alluring theme.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For it springs from hidden fountains</div> -<div class="verse">In the distant, misty mountains,</div> -<div class="indent">Where it weaves a silver ream.</div> -<div class="verse">Then it hastens to the valley,</div> -<div class="verse">There to whirl and sing and dally</div> -<div class="indent">In a dance of crystal gleam.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> -<div class="verse">It may seem an idle fancy,</div> -<div class="verse">Or a scheme of Pegomancy</div> -<div class="indent">That was practiced long ago,</div> -<div class="verse">But you’ll find that unexpected,</div> -<div class="verse">All your being is affected</div> -<div class="indent">By the waters murmuring so.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Of the fountains that they sprang from,</div> -<div class="verse">Of the mountains that they sang from</div> -<div class="indent">At an altitude so high</div> -<div class="verse">That they even heard the whispers</div> -<div class="verse">In the mornings and the vespers</div> -<div class="indent">Of the saints that were so nigh.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And the waters bring the tidings,</div> -<div class="verse">And they tell of the abidings</div> -<div class="indent">Of departed souls <i>you</i> know,</div> -<div class="verse">For their voices seemed to follow</div> -<div class="verse">Down into the Happy Hollow</div> -<div class="indent">Where the winding waters flow.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Where a light that has the seeming</div> -<div class="verse">Of a pure benignly beaming—</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> -<div class="indent">Ever there the day and night—</div> -<div class="verse">Brings to you a tranquil feeling</div> -<div class="verse">Through its soft rays to you stealing</div> -<div class="indent">Of a calm, serene delight.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then you’ll fall to sweetly dreaming</div> -<div class="verse">While the mellow light is gleaming</div> -<div class="indent">On the ever-winding stream;</div> -<div class="verse">And the world will turn to smiling,</div> -<div class="verse">Through the strange and soft beguiling</div> -<div class="indent">Of the Happy Hollow Dream.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">You will hear a loved one singing,</div> -<div class="verse">On the waters that are bringing</div> -<div class="indent">To your dream-enraptured ear,</div> -<div class="verse">Oh! the very tones that ravished</div> -<div class="verse">Once your heart until it lavished</div> -<div class="indent">Ev’ry love to lovers dear!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And beyond the mind’s creation,</div> -<div class="verse">In a pleasing presentation,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> -<div class="indent">Faces to you will appear</div> -<div class="verse">Of departed ones you well knew,</div> -<div class="verse">Who will smile as if to tell you</div> -<div class="indent">They are ever, ever near.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">In the mountains of Somally</div> -<div class="verse">Where the stream winds through the valley,</div> -<div class="indent">And the skies so lulling seem,</div> -<div class="verse">There the world will turn to smiling</div> -<div class="verse">Through the strange and soft beguiling</div> -<div class="indent">Of the Happy Hollow Dream.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="verse">Where’s Letha? Where’s Letha? Now where did she go?</div> -<div class="verse">And what could possess her to run away so?</div> -<div class="verse">“’Tis like her, she’s shy, and she’s hiding somewhere,</div> -<div class="verse">While the bold Roland Rare is awaiting her here.”</div> -<div class="verse">Thus the chap’ron ran calling and searching for Letha</div> -<div class="verse">Till she found her at last in a hiding beneath a</div> -<div class="verse">Round table. “I wish I could stay here and die,”</div> -<div class="verse">Said Letha, “I hate to pretend that I cry.”</div> -<div class="verse">But she tripped to the floor with a little shy glance,</div> -<div class="verse">And began with bold Roland to sing and to dance.</div> -</div></div> - -<p> </p> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span></p> - - -<h3>THE LOVERS’ QUARREL</h3> - -<p class="center">(<i>By Roland Rare and Letha Lane.</i>)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Roland</i>—</div> -<div class="indent2">Letha Lane, why! Letha Lane,</div> -<div class="indent2">Now I beg you to explain</div> -<div class="indent2">Why so many things you say</div> -<div class="indent2">In that tantalizing way;</div> -<div class="indent5">Why you sigh,</div> -<div class="indent5">’Tend to cry,</div> -<div class="indent2">When no tears are in your eye.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Letha</i>—</div> -<div class="indent2">I could tell you, Roland Rare,</div> -<div class="indent2">Things of which you’re well aware,</div> -<div class="indent2">That you’d hardly care to hear;</div> -<div class="indent2">Things that sometimes bring a tear</div> -<div class="indent5">To my eye,</div> -<div class="indent5">Though I try</div> -<div class="indent2">Not to let you know I cry.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Roland</i>—</div> -<div class="indent2">Letha Lane, now I would fain</div> -<div class="indent2">Know the reason you disdain</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> -<div class="indent2">To express your thoughts at all—</div> -<div class="indent2">Any time I’m asked to call,</div> -<div class="indent5">I appear,</div> -<div class="indent5">Then I fear</div> -<div class="indent2">You are vexed that I am near.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Letha</i>—</div> -<div class="indent2">Roland Rare, how can you dare</div> -<div class="indent2">Look at me with such an air?</div> -<div class="indent2">So it seems I called you then,</div> -<div class="indent2">Oh! how long ago that’s been!</div> -<div class="indent5">Not this year,</div> -<div class="indent5">And I fear</div> -<div class="indent2">’Twas no other time, my dear.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Roland Rare!</i></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Letha Lane!</i></td></tr> -<tr><td rowspan="4"><i>Both</i>—</td><td rowspan="4"><img src="images/bracket.jpg" alt="" /></td><td>I will tell you once again,</td></tr> - - - <tr><td>If you do not cease your fooling,</td></tr> - <tr><td>You will find my fond love cooling,</td></tr> - <tr><td>Though it seems you do not care,</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Letha Lane!</i></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Roland Rare!</i></td></tr> -</table> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Roland</i>—</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> -<div class="indent2">Letha Lane, it is so plain</div> -<div class="indent2">That your love is on the wane,</div> -<div class="indent2">And ’tis time to say good-bye;</div> -<div class="indent2">I shall go away and try</div> -<div class="indent5">To forget</div> -<div class="indent5">That we met,</div> -<div class="indent2">Though this parting brings regret.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Letha</i>—</div> -<div class="indent2">Now I ask you, Roland Rare,</div> -<div class="indent2">Do you think that it is fair</div> -<div class="indent2">Thus to leave me as you say,</div> -<div class="indent2">Leave me when I feel this way,</div> -<div class="indent5">While I sigh</div> -<div class="indent5">And I cry</div> -<div class="indent2">With real tear-drops in my eye?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Roland</i>—</div> -<div class="indent2">Letha! Why now, Letha Lane!</div> -<div class="indent2">Did you think me so insane?</div> -<div class="indent2">Never meant a word of it;</div> -<div class="indent2">I was fooling, too, a bit—</div> -<div class="indent5">Do not sigh,</div> -<div class="indent5">Do not cry,</div> -<div class="indent2">Why! real tears are in your eye.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Roland Rare!</i></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Letha Lane!</i></td></tr> -<tr><td rowspan="4"><i>Both</i>—</td><td rowspan="4"><img src="images/bracket.jpg" alt="" /></td><td>We must never quarrel again.</td></tr> - -<tr><td>If we do not cease our fooling,</td></tr> -<tr><td>We will find our fond love cooling,</td></tr> -<tr><td>Then, Oh! then, we both will care;</td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Letha Lane!</i></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td><i>Roland Rare!</i></td></tr> -</table> - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="verse">“I’m thinking of something I never will tell,”</div> -<div class="verse">Came a whispering voice. “Oh, we know it as well,”</div> -<div class="verse">Piped a dozen small voices. “You mean about Tim?”</div> -<div class="verse">“Oh, every one knows ’bout the Timorous him,</div> -<div class="verse">They say he’s in love with Celina.” “Oh, no,</div> -<div class="verse">Why Tim was in love with Jeannette, don’t you know?”</div> -<div class="verse">“Jeannette, who was married a few weeks ago?”</div> -<div class="verse">“Yes, he loved her, I’m sure, for Jeannette told me so.”</div> -<div class="verse">“She told us the same, so we know it as well,</div> -<div class="verse">But we’re glad that <i>you</i> told us. We never will tell.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then they would have a song from the dolorous Tim,</div> -<div class="verse">And it seemed there was nothing to do but for him</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> -<div class="verse">To sing them a song that had broken his heart;</div> -<div class="verse">He never could sing it but salt tears would start</div> -<div class="verse">To his tender blue eyes. Tim Dolor began,</div> -<div class="verse">And the dancers all witnessed the tears as they ran</div> -<div class="verse">To his chin, where they dangled a moment, then—fell</div> -<div class="verse">On the floor, and the dancers all knew very well</div> -<div class="verse">That the words of the song were the sad solemn truth,</div> -<div class="verse">And every one pitied the heart-broken youth.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>TIM DOLOR’S SONG</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">While I may sing my song of woe,</div> -<div class="indent">Pray sympathize politely,</div> -<div class="verse">And if my tears should start to flow</div> -<div class="indent">Oh, do not treat them lightly.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There was a time I loved a maid—</div> -<div class="indent">And none of you will doubt it—</div> -<div class="verse">But being shy, I was afraid</div> -<div class="indent">To tell the maid about it.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I thought that she would surely know,</div> -<div class="indent">Or maybe she would guess it,</div> -<div class="verse">And seeing that I loved her so,</div> -<div class="indent">Would help me to confess it.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> -<div class="verse">Oh, secret love with nameless pain,</div> -<div class="indent">And only sighs relieving,</div> -<div class="verse">And now and then to hope again</div> -<div class="indent">To leave your bosom heaving.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">One night I thought I heard a bell;</div> -<div class="indent">I walked the street and listened;</div> -<div class="verse">The night was cold, the snow that fell</div> -<div class="indent">Was colder still and glistened.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It was her wedding bell, I knew;</div> -<div class="indent">I did not need to guess it;</div> -<div class="verse">Another who had loved her, too,</div> -<div class="indent">Had hastened to confess it.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I wandered out into the lane</div> -<div class="indent">That led up to her dwelling,</div> -<div class="verse">And there I stood—I think insane,</div> -<div class="indent">I’m sure, there was no telling.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I saw the guests pass by in glee,</div> -<div class="indent">And all of them were laughing,</div> -<div class="verse">And every one looked back at me,</div> -<div class="indent">And at me seemed a-chaffing.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> -<div class="verse">They mocked at me so light and gay,</div> -<div class="indent">I could not seem to doubt it,</div> -<div class="verse">I burst in tears and turned away</div> -<div class="indent">And never told about it.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">It was sad to the dancers, so sad; but the traces</div> -<div class="verse">Of unbidden tears disappeared from their faces;</div> -<div class="verse">For as Dolor concluded the hound came a prowling</div> -<div class="verse">Right under the window and set up a howling,</div> -<div class="verse">Which made the sad singer forget his great trouble</div> -<div class="verse">And join in the laughter that bent them all double.</div> -<div class="verse">“It seems”, said the witling, “that hounds have reverses</div> -<div class="verse">And sing like some others their doggerel verses.”</div> -<div class="verse">Then Malindy went pouting again, and the wit</div> -<div class="verse">To get even, concluded <i>he’d</i> sing for a bit.</div> -</div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>THE SONG OF THE WITLING</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">She pouts, but yesterday she smiled,</div> -<div class="verse">And since that moment I have whiled</div> -<div class="verse">Away the hours with hope and doubt</div> -<div class="verse">And see the lips that smile and pout.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> -<div class="verse">So high at times she holds her head,</div> -<div class="verse">I feel a certain awe or dread,</div> -<div class="verse">But when she smiles, I know not why,</div> -<div class="verse">Her head seems never held so high.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Her brow and eyes will often frown</div> -<div class="verse">Until she sees how I’m cast down,</div> -<div class="verse">And then she’ll turn and sympathize</div> -<div class="verse">With placid brow and smiling eyes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Gainst pose of head and frown I cope,</div> -<div class="verse">For in her smile I find a hope,</div> -<div class="verse">And every hour I think about</div> -<div class="verse">And see the lips that smile and pout.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="verse">From a land so replete with a chivalric story</div> -<div class="verse">That even its name is a symbol of glory,</div> -<div class="verse">Came a bachelor unloved, but as gentle and kind</div> -<div class="verse">As though he were still a fond lover. His mind</div> -<div class="verse">Often turned to the valley from which he had come,</div> -<div class="verse">For throughout the wide world there was still but one home</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> -<div class="verse">For which his heart yearned; but he could not return;</div> -<div class="verse">It was but a mem’ry, the real home was gone,</div> -<div class="verse">And all of the warmth of a bright Southern sun</div> -<div class="verse">Could never revive what the war had undone.</div> -</div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>SWEET SHENANDOAH</h3> - -<p class="center">(<i>By the Bachelor.</i>)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I’m thinking of Sweet Shenandoah</div> -<div class="verse">That ever brings a pleasing dream</div> -<div class="verse">Of mountain, plain, and winding stream,</div> -<div class="verse">And joyous days of long ago,</div> -<div class="verse">On silent wings of memory,</div> -<div class="verse">Are coming back to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I hear the daybreak braggards crow,</div> -<div class="verse">As oft I heard that shrill refrain</div> -<div class="verse">When there I yawned and slept again;</div> -<div class="verse">I hear the noon-day tin horn blow,</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, sweeter than Æolian tones,</div> -<div class="verse">Its welcome to the hungry zones,</div> -<div class="verse">Where men afield with plow and hoe,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> -<div class="verse">Who hear its call, are turning home—</div> -<div class="verse">Their jaded horses, flecked with foam,</div> -<div class="verse">Now answer with a knowing neigh—</div> -<div class="verse">It all comes back to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The meadows there seem ripe to mow,</div> -<div class="verse">So tawny, thick, and redolent</div> -<div class="verse">The bulky heads are downward bent.</div> -<div class="verse">The long, sweet day is there, and oh!</div> -<div class="verse">I hear the murmuring melody</div> -<div class="verse">Of streams that wind so merrily,</div> -<div class="verse">And romp and laugh as on they flow</div> -<div class="verse">To mingle with the greater stream,</div> -<div class="verse">Then lose themselves as in a dream,</div> -<div class="verse">And still by day and night they go</div> -<div class="verse">To dream and dream eternally—</div> -<div class="verse">It all comes back to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">How often when the sun would glow,</div> -<div class="verse">I’ve conjured o’er some boyish theme</div> -<div class="verse">With lazy lollings by the stream</div> -<div class="verse">As past me it would babbling go,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> -<div class="verse">Till, as the shadows forth would creep,</div> -<div class="verse">I’ve yielded to a drowsy sleep,</div> -<div class="verse">Unmindful that the sun was low,</div> -<div class="verse">When nature’s own sweet lullaby</div> -<div class="verse">Came soothingly to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Sweet eventide of long ago,</div> -<div class="verse">When swallows circled near the barn</div> -<div class="verse">And peacocks called their false forlorn;</div> -<div class="verse">When over at the dusky row</div> -<div class="verse">Was heard the darkies’ jamboree,</div> -<div class="verse">In weird and unchecked rhapsody;</div> -<div class="verse">Far down the milky way would bow—</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas night and full of witchery</div> -<div class="verse">In boyhood days to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I’m thinking of sweet Shenandoah</div> -<div class="verse">And days before the Civil Strife—</div> -<div class="verse">I loved the old Virginia life,</div> -<div class="verse">The joyous days of long ago</div> -<div class="verse">When all the world to us we knew</div> -<div class="verse">Was there; when tears and laughter, too,</div> -<div class="verse">Were shared by all; if tears should flow</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas common cause for sympathy;</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> -<div class="verse">To laugh was to intensify</div> -<div class="verse">The cause of laughter so. I grow</div> -<div class="verse">To fondly love the memory</div> -<div class="verse">That now comes back to me.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="verse">“Malindy, Malindy, we’re waiting for you,”</div> -<div class="verse">Cried the dancers, “Come sing of an old lover true,</div> -<div class="verse">And tell us which one of them all was the best,</div> -<div class="verse">Or if none of them suit who to you have confessed,</div> -<div class="verse">Pray tell us if some one you know of will do;</div> -<div class="verse">Then sing us a song of a love that is new,</div> -<div class="verse">And tell us if ever you mean to be wed;</div> -<div class="verse">Or if you intend to stay single instead—</div> -<div class="verse">Malindy, Malindy, we all want to know,</div> -<div class="verse">Why is it you always are fooling ’round so?”</div> -</div></div> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>IN THE ANTE-DELUVIAN DAY</h3> - -<p class="center">(<i>By Malindy.</i>)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There once was a maid by the name of Mespay,</div> -<div class="verse">Who believed in the luck of a leisurely way;</div> -<div class="verse">At ninety, ’twas noticed (to tell the whole truth)</div> -<div class="verse">She yet had neglected selecting a youth,</div> -<div class="verse">Though many had wooed the young maiden, they say,</div> -<div class="verse">In the Ante-Deluvian Day.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> -<div class="verse">’Tis a matter of record the Chinese had kept—</div> -<div class="verse">At which there are none who have been so adept—</div> -<div class="verse">That Jabel had journeyed some hundreds of miles</div> -<div class="verse">With a herd of slick cattle to win the maid’s smiles,</div> -<div class="verse">When she took the whole herd, but she turned him away,</div> -<div class="verse">In the Ante-Deluvian Day.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then Jubel came playing a harp made of gold,</div> -<div class="verse">Which he gave the fair maiden a moment to hold,</div> -<div class="verse">And leaving, he felt it would be a great wrong</div> -<div class="verse">If he then would ungallantly take it along,</div> -<div class="verse">Still, for one hundred years he remembered, they say,</div> -<div class="verse">The maid with the leisurely way.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then Magella presented the Mount of Tusong,</div> -<div class="verse">And Jaered gave the maiden the valley of Hong,</div> -<div class="verse">And ev’ry unmarried man sought the maid’s hand,</div> -<div class="verse">Until she grew rich in both cattle and land,</div> -<div class="verse">For she twenty years longer turned lovers away,</div> -<div class="verse">In the Ante-Deluvian Day.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> -<div class="verse">But when Noah appeared, and ’twas well understood</div> -<div class="verse">He was building an ark, as he looked for a flood,</div> -<div class="verse">She married him when, at one hundred and ten,</div> -<div class="verse">She still felt too young to be marrying then,</div> -<div class="verse">But she did it to prove, as the Chinese will say,</div> -<div class="verse">There is luck in the leisurely way.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><hr class="tb" /> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The fiddles were heard and they turned to the dance</div> -<div class="verse">As though ev’ry one there had awaited the chance</div> -<div class="verse">To be first on the floor for the old waltz quadrille,</div> -<div class="verse">Which they never had danced but it brought a new thrill.</div> -<div class="verse">They glided and whirled with a giddy, gay swing,</div> -<div class="verse">Nor thought of the morrow nor what it would bring,</div> -<div class="verse">For midnight was only a part of the night,</div> -<div class="verse">While the night was all theirs till the morn’s early light;</div> -<div class="verse">All they cared for was there, and so why should they borrow</div> -<div class="verse">The shadow of thought for the coming to-morrow?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Thus, thoughtless of danger and heedless of warning</div> -<div class="verse">The dancing went on till the dawn of the morning,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> -<div class="verse">When in terror the dancers then found that the flood</div> -<div class="verse">Had surrounded the house and the barn, and they stood</div> -<div class="verse">On an island alone in the midst of the stream.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas as if they had waked from a long, pleasing dream</div> -<div class="verse">To a fate that was ugly and stern, and appalled</div> -<div class="verse">At impending destruction, they frantic’ly called;</div> -<div class="verse">Some cried for a father, and some for a brother,</div> -<div class="verse">And screaming they ran from one side to the other.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And if, for a moment, their fears would subside,</div> -<div class="verse">Their terror returned as they watched the high tide,</div> -<div class="verse">For the river seemed angry that swept o’er the highways,</div> -<div class="verse">And madly it rushed o’er the country and byways,</div> -<div class="verse">As with threats of destruction it held its mane high</div> -<div class="verse">Like a monster that brooks no obstructions that lie</div> -<div class="verse">In its way, while it lashed with its tail at the shore;</div> -<div class="verse">Over country and highway, apast them it tore</div> -<div class="verse">With a swirl and a whirl as the high waves would break</div> -<div class="verse">To dash on the island a yellowish flake.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Since the Red Men had named it “the beautiful river,”</div> -<div class="verse">No flood-tide was like it, nor yet was there ever</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> -<div class="verse">Such woe on the fair verdant banks at its shore,</div> -<div class="verse">As higher and onward the great torrent bore,</div> -<div class="verse">As downward and forward the avalanche tore.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas as wide as the valley from hill unto hill,</div> -<div class="verse">And as deep as the valley with turmoil to fill;</div> -<div class="verse">It bent the great oak standing upright and bold;</div> -<div class="verse">It swept away houses, the new with the old,</div> -<div class="verse">And together the hut and the mansion were rolled.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh! often the “Oracle” gave his command</div> -<div class="verse">In a grand, sweeping wave with his lily-white hand;</div> -<div class="verse">But the flood only laughed at the magical wand;</div> -<div class="verse">And strange now to say, but the dancers did hope</div> -<div class="verse">That somewhere a power was in it to cope</div> -<div class="verse">’Gainst the flood. They were ready to catch at a straw,</div> -<div class="verse">For drowning ones know neither reason nor law,</div> -<div class="verse">And to that which they ridiculed many a day</div> -<div class="verse">They anxiously turned in their fear and dismay,</div> -<div class="verse">Half trusting by that their destruction to stay.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">We may laugh at all creeds, and discredit tradition,</div> -<div class="verse">But danger discovers our blind superstition.</div> -<div class="verse">When our bodies are sick and we lie on our backs,</div> -<div class="verse">If we can not find doctors we send for the quacks;</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> -<div class="verse">And if one should grow worse, there is no use denying</div> -<div class="verse">That the priest whom he scoffed at he wants when he’s dying;</div> -<div class="verse">In the absence of doctors or priests or of creeds,</div> -<div class="verse">We then turn to conjure with magical deeds.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas the same with the dancers—they wanted to live,</div> -<div class="verse">And were ready to take what the faker could give.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">’Twas a pitiful sight and a helpless appeal,</div> -<div class="verse">For the dancers’ dilemma was awful and real.</div> -<div class="verse">Though the stronger among them their fears would conceal,</div> -<div class="verse">Still, their actions would show the forebodings they’d feel.</div> -<div class="verse">There was motive enough, there was courage; in fact,</div> -<div class="verse">They were anxious to dare, but were helpless to act.</div> -<div class="verse">Ah! some would have risked there the watery grave</div> -<div class="verse">If assured that their sweethearts by that they could save;</div> -<div class="verse">The occasion, the time, and the motive were there,</div> -<div class="verse">Had they only known how, they were ready to dare.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> -<div class="verse">While the daring was there, still the river was wide,</div> -<div class="verse">And an effort to rescue seemed useless if tried;</div> -<div class="verse">So they talked and they planned with their heads close together;</div> -<div class="verse">They looked at the river and also the weather,</div> -<div class="verse">And the lovers were gathered real close to each other—</div> -<div class="verse">For the loud-roaring river their voices would smother—</div> -<div class="verse">And if still not so happy, they knew in each breast</div> -<div class="verse">Was a feeling far deeper than either had guessed;</div> -<div class="verse">But the river was wild, Oh! so wild and distracting,</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas hard to tell love from hysterical acting.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">From the house to the barn and returning again,</div> -<div class="verse">They wandered about till they came to the lane</div> -<div class="verse">That led past the house, and uneasily ever,</div> -<div class="verse">Retracing their footsteps, they watched the wild river;</div> -<div class="verse">They saw the fixed marks they had set as a gauge</div> -<div class="verse">Disappear in the flood as it reached to that stage;</div> -<div class="verse">They saw a house floating apast them at last,</div> -<div class="verse">They heard a child scream in the house as it passed!</div> -<div class="verse">Amazed and bewildered, they sought ev’rywhere</div> -<div class="verse">To escape from the peril that threatened them there.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> -<div class="verse">But neither a boat nor a skiff was at hand</div> -<div class="verse">Which they felt had the strength ’gainst the waves to withstand,</div> -<div class="verse">Save an old, dinky john-boat, and it wasn’t fit,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet Dan, the bass-fiddler, went rowing in it</div> -<div class="verse">To see, so he said, if the john-boat would do,</div> -<div class="verse">When out in the current the dinky boat flew,</div> -<div class="verse">And the fiddler was helpless and had to go, too.</div> -<div class="verse">They saw with alarm that his danger still grew</div> -<div class="verse">As the boat on an end like a bobble was toss’d,</div> -<div class="verse">Then plunged to a depth where it seemed to be lost.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There breathless they stood in an agonized fear</div> -<div class="verse">When they saw him ride high to again disappear;</div> -<div class="verse">But bravely he fought with the oars at his side,</div> -<div class="verse">Though his efforts were futile to stem the high tide;</div> -<div class="verse">They saw the boat whirl in an eddy away,</div> -<div class="verse">Till it seemed he ceased striving in utter dismay;</div> -<div class="verse">Then the dancers seemed paralyzed there on the place,</div> -<div class="verse">And horror was stamped upon ev’ry pale face;</div> -<div class="verse">They heard his wild cries and it filled them with gloom,</div> -<div class="verse">He went from their view, and they thought to his doom.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> -<div class="verse">They stood there in terror and thought of his fate.</div> -<div class="verse">It redoubled the fear of their own trying state,</div> -<div class="verse">And the ghost of poor Dan seemed to everywhere walk</div> -<div class="verse">In their midst—they were dazed and unable to talk;</div> -<div class="verse">For many were there who in life had seen naught</div> -<div class="verse">Of the horrors like that which that day to them brought,</div> -<div class="verse">And now when they realized all that had come,</div> -<div class="verse">They cried, Oh! they screamed for the loved ones at home,</div> -<div class="verse">But their voices were drowned in the maddening roar</div> -<div class="verse">And their tears dimmed the view of the far distant shore.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">We shrink from imprisonment ever afar;</div> -<div class="verse">We fight against water, the wall, or the bar</div> -<div class="verse">That would keep us from freedom to do as we will;</div> -<div class="verse">Even lovers or comrades together are still,</div> -<div class="verse">Never nearly so happy when liberty’s gone;</div> -<div class="verse">So they brought up the wine—something had to be done—</div> -<div class="verse">And all the men drank it to steady their nerve,</div> -<div class="verse">For Twilley had told them that wine would preserve</div> -<div class="verse">The courage of man where there’s danger to face,</div> -<div class="verse">And the women all ate, as they cried ’round the place.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> -<div class="verse">For women eat more when they feel they’re in trouble,</div> -<div class="verse">And men not so much, but they drink about double.</div> -<div class="verse">True, ’tis better in flood times to keep duly sober,</div> -<div class="verse">Like Noah of old did—the flood was all over</div> -<div class="verse">When he was so drunken—for he understood</div> -<div class="verse">(After being forewarned) how to handle a flood,</div> -<div class="verse">While the dancers lacked wisdom to know what to do,</div> -<div class="verse">For the strange situation was awkward and new;</div> -<div class="verse">But if they seemed foolish and often uncouth,</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas still but the weakness and folly of youth.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Now Twilley was thoughtful, and (not to repeat)</div> -<div class="verse">Though very good-natured, was also discreet;</div> -<div class="verse">He cautioned the men not to drink more than needed,</div> -<div class="verse">And, of course, he had felt his advice would be heeded,</div> -<div class="verse">But the men were but men, and the most were mere boys,</div> -<div class="verse">At that uncertain age called the “hobble-de-hoys,”</div> -<div class="verse">Unused to the wine, or the shame that it brings,</div> -<div class="verse">And quite self-important, but (innocent things)</div> -<div class="verse">How could they when older become very sage</div> -<div class="verse">If they hadn’t learned something at that early age?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> -<div class="verse">The flood was declining at noon-time that day,</div> -<div class="verse">And danger seemed held in abeyance away.</div> -<div class="verse">The clouds rolled away, and the afternoon sun</div> -<div class="verse">Looked down with a smile that was brim-full of fun.</div> -<div class="verse">The dancers held councils and hoped for the best</div> -<div class="verse">Till all were more tranquil and much less distressed,</div> -<div class="verse">And as most of the dancers were youthful in years,</div> -<div class="verse">And none had grown old in their hearts, so their fears</div> -<div class="verse">Were more transient to them than to those who were older,</div> -<div class="verse">While their daring, as well as their folly, was bolder.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Day waned into night, and with no sign of rain,</div> -<div class="verse">They had dreaded the night, but the moon shone again</div> -<div class="verse">And that seemed the signal that none were to die,</div> -<div class="verse">So they sat down to eat with the table banked high,</div> -<div class="verse">And glad with the thought of the waters declining,</div> -<div class="verse">They forgot all their trials and soon began dining,</div> -<div class="verse">And all of them dallied a little with wine</div> -<div class="verse">(To get up a courage) and some feeling fine</div> -<div class="verse">Sprang up with a song and went dancing around</div> -<div class="verse">All over the house on the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> -<div class="verse">’Twas as if they had suddenly lost all their fears,</div> -<div class="verse">Or had burst into laughter while still in their tears.</div> -<div class="verse">They capered and romped in a strange childish glee,</div> -<div class="verse">While Malindy was singing hilariously.</div> -<div class="verse">The chaperone scolded and coaxed them in vain</div> -<div class="verse">To heed what she said, and be decent and sane;</div> -<div class="verse">To remember their danger and think of poor Dan;</div> -<div class="verse">She cried and she screamed, but they every one ran</div> -<div class="verse">And left their hen-mamma so anxious and fond,</div> -<div class="verse">Like so many gosling, to swim in the pond.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And what though the fiddlers felt sleepy and droned</div> -<div class="verse">Or even the fiddles went harsh and untoned,</div> -<div class="verse">So long as the drum was sufficiently jarred,</div> -<div class="verse">The dance was too maudlin to feel the discord,</div> -<div class="verse">The witling went whirling in ancient ghwazee,</div> -<div class="verse">But just what to call it no two could agree.</div> -<div class="verse">“A damsel once danced it,” the great witling said,</div> -<div class="verse">“When her sweet mamma wanted the great Baptist’s head.”</div> -<div class="verse">If he meant to be gruesome, they said he was shallow,</div> -<div class="verse">And as none would dance with him he danced with his shadow.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> -<div class="verse">The bold Roland Rare was possessed with a swagger</div> -<div class="verse">That had all the grace of a common blind stagger,</div> -<div class="verse">While Simon, the cynic, looked on with a sneer,</div> -<div class="verse">And every time Roland passed grinned with a leer.</div> -<div class="verse">The folly went on as it had gone before,</div> -<div class="verse">Till some growing thoughtful, refused to dance more;</div> -<div class="verse">Then directly most every one seemed of like thought,</div> -<div class="verse">For the wine was all gone, and the ones who had sought</div> -<div class="verse">The wine cup the most, had a look as if taunted</div> -<div class="verse">By more than the fear with which others were haunted.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For the pleasure from wine turned to mockery soon,</div> -<div class="verse">And the sweetest song then had remorse in its tone.</div> -<div class="verse">When the spirit they found in the cup that was brought</div> -<div class="verse">Turned a weakling and died and their nerves were distraught.</div> -<div class="verse">Then their folly to them seemed as dark as a crime</div> -<div class="verse">Which could never be whitened by penance or time—</div> -<div class="verse">Crash! ev’rywhere out of doors, crash and splash!</div> -<div class="verse">The drift-wood and water and yellow waves dash.</div> -<div class="verse">And in the room there all the women are crying,</div> -<div class="verse">While all the men suffer a weakness as trying.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> -<div class="verse">For their nerves were so racked by the roar of the river</div> -<div class="verse">That the men felt their danger more keenly than ever;</div> -<div class="verse">But one told a story and some tried to smile</div> -<div class="verse">With efforts to rally the others the while</div> -<div class="verse">From cowardly fearing; then some fell asleep</div> -<div class="verse">To awake with a start and upon the floor leap;</div> -<div class="verse">But Simon, the cynic, still looked with a sneer,</div> -<div class="verse">And ev’ry time Roland waked, grinned with a leer;</div> -<div class="verse">And assuming his swagger with impudent mocking,</div> -<div class="verse">He sang with a ribaldry meant to be shocking.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<h3>SIMON’S SONG</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Arrayed in fine linen, we go to a ball,</div> -<div class="indent">Where we banquet with friends whom we joyously meet,</div> -<div class="verse">And we revel down wine and the savories all</div> -<div class="indent">Mid flowers and the music so lang’rously sweet;</div> -<div class="verse">But anon, while we linger the banqueting sours</div> -<div class="verse">In these bothersome bodies of ours.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> -<div class="verse">Then in stupor we sleep while our spirits take flight</div> -<div class="indent">To places unknown in a wondering dream,</div> -<div class="verse">And we fall from a tower in a horrible fright,</div> -<div class="indent">Where we strangle and drown in a deep-rolling stream;</div> -<div class="verse">For our spirits may soar all alone to high towers,</div> -<div class="verse">But they fall with these bodies of ours.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">We have faith and a hope and some charity, too,</div> -<div class="indent">We trust in our preacher, or elder, or pope,</div> -<div class="verse">And so far as we know, ’tis the best thing to do,</div> -<div class="indent">But the fall shakes our faith and we all but lose hope</div> -<div class="verse">When we think of the grave and the worm that devours</div> -<div class="verse">These bothersome bodies of ours.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Still, ’tis hard to stay drowned very long in a dream</div> -<div class="indent">When one is so restless in body and mind,</div> -<div class="verse">So we struggle and flounder from out of the stream</div> -<div class="indent">To awake in a cold, clammy sweat, and we find</div> -<div class="verse">That the trouble’s a banquet with music and flowers</div> -<div class="verse">In these bothersome bodies of ours.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> -<div class="verse">He sang it as though it o’erflowed with his wit,</div> -<div class="verse">And the dancers were glad when he got through with it.</div> -<div class="verse">Even danger no longer could keep them from sleep,</div> -<div class="verse">Which was fitful to some, whilst to others ’twas deep,</div> -<div class="verse">But they left not the room where in circles they grouped,</div> -<div class="verse">Or they lounged in the chairs, as when sleeping they drooped.</div> -<div class="verse">They were tired, Oh! so tired, and with all so distressed,</div> -<div class="verse">They slept in discomfort, but tried to find rest,</div> -<div class="verse">When suddenly every one woke with a fear—</div> -<div class="verse">A storm was approaching, they felt it was near.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">They heard the wind moaning among the tall trees,</div> -<div class="verse">Then louder and swift sprang the shrill eastern breeze,</div> -<div class="verse">Until the house shook from the force of its sway,</div> -<div class="verse">And they felt the trees bend as their shadows would play;</div> -<div class="verse">Then the rain began falling, though lightly at first,</div> -<div class="verse">Till directly it seemed like a sweeping cloud-burst;</div> -<div class="verse">When a flash of sharp lightning had blinded the room,</div> -<div class="verse">A terrific loud peal like a great cannon’s boom</div> -<div class="verse">Came thundering above them with crashing resound</div> -<div class="verse">That made the house quake on the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> -<div class="verse">Then to every one came an alarm for their daring</div> -<div class="verse">And folly. In silence, with awe in their bearing,</div> -<div class="verse">They tiptoed to look out of window and door,</div> -<div class="verse">Then out in the darkness and in the down-pour</div> -<div class="verse">Of the rain to the edge of the water they wandered.</div> -<div class="verse">The river was rising! They shivered and pondered,</div> -<div class="verse">And they peered through the gloom for help that might come,</div> -<div class="verse">But it came not! it came not! They turned to the home</div> -<div class="verse">Through the darkness of night and the chill of the air,</div> -<div class="verse">They groped to the house in an utter despair.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A cry of distress from without reached their ears,</div> -<div class="verse">Then louder it grew, and with strange, haunting fears,</div> -<div class="verse">They trembled and listened to hear it again,</div> -<div class="verse">When above the loud roar and the storm and the rain,</div> -<div class="verse">Like a wail of the lost came the heart-rending cry.</div> -<div class="verse">Some fainted; some stood with a wide-staring eye</div> -<div class="verse">And ran from the room on a rescue to start,</div> -<div class="verse">Whilst others sprang up with a fast beating heart,</div> -<div class="verse">When the crying grew faint, like a nightmare it pass’d,</div> -<div class="verse">But it left with the dancers the shadow it cast.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> -<div class="verse">The storm was abating, the rainfall had ceased,</div> -<div class="verse">The terrible roar for a time had decreased,</div> -<div class="verse">The dancers were thoughtful and quiet at last,</div> -<div class="verse">And hopeful, perhaps, that the worst had now passed,</div> -<div class="verse">When, horrors! Again came a cry of despair,</div> -<div class="verse">Then louder and longer it hung in the air;</div> -<div class="verse">“Oh, some one is drowning,” they screamed as they flew</div> -<div class="verse">Through the hall and the doorway—so sure it was true—</div> -<div class="verse">And there in the darkness, with no moon to see by,</div> -<div class="verse">They found the hound howling most piteously.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">That ominous sound was to them the death token;</div> -<div class="verse">They returned to the house, and without a word spoken</div> -<div class="verse">(Their feelings too awed for a word or a tear),</div> -<div class="verse">To sit there in silence and tremble in fear,</div> -<div class="verse">Till some one spoke softly of Dan and his fate;</div> -<div class="verse">Then Malindy grew nervous—the strain was too great—</div> -<div class="verse">She rose to her feet with an uncertain totter,</div> -<div class="verse">And weaving around till the bachelor caught her,</div> -<div class="verse">“How awful!” she sighed, as she fell in a swoon,</div> -<div class="verse">“To hear a hound howling without any moon!”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> -<div class="verse">There then was confusion—the table knocked over</div> -<div class="verse">And likewise the chairs—but the bachelor lover</div> -<div class="verse">Held fast to Malindy, as all lovers should;</div> -<div class="verse">Malindy lay quiet—but that’s understood—</div> -<div class="verse">The witling ran errands and acted real nice,</div> -<div class="verse">While Neoma was rubbing, and all gave advice,</div> -<div class="verse">Or all save the Cynic, who grinned ’round the place,</div> -<div class="verse">Till Malindy came to, when she hid her sweet face</div> -<div class="verse">In the bachelor’s arms, where they left her alone,</div> -<div class="verse">“Come away,” cried the Cynic, “at last she is won.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There was no more dancing throughout the dark night,</div> -<div class="verse">So intently they longed for the coming of light,</div> -<div class="verse">For danger and darkness are frightfully mated</div> -<div class="verse">When danger approaches where darkness has waited.</div> -<div class="verse">They heard the wild river loud laughing and jeering!</div> -<div class="verse">It mocked at their fears while it ever was nearing;</div> -<div class="verse">Then they huddled in groups, as do creatures when caged,</div> -<div class="verse">When they heard the mad monster that roared and raged—</div> -<div class="verse">He was coming, was coming, they knew by the sound,</div> -<div class="verse">He would sweep the house off of the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> -<div class="verse">At daybreak the water was high in the barn.</div> -<div class="verse">They moved all the horses and cattle and corn</div> -<div class="verse">Near the house, and there likewise they stacked up the hay.</div> -<div class="verse">Thus the morning hours passed with forebodings away,</div> -<div class="verse">With many reproaches and bitter complaints,</div> -<div class="verse">That none came to rescue—and two or three faints.</div> -<div class="verse">If in darkness they’d longed for the coming of light,</div> -<div class="verse">(While regretting their folly, they’d thought of their plight),</div> -<div class="verse">Still the danger seemed greater that noon-day had brought,</div> -<div class="verse">As even that came with a new peril fraught.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For the river still rose and the horses and cattle</div> -<div class="verse">Stood in water to knees; ’twas in earnest a battle</div> -<div class="verse">For life, for the whole of the great bulk of hay</div> -<div class="verse">That the dancers had stacked had now floated away,</div> -<div class="verse">And the corn had all gone, leaving nothing to eat—</div> -<div class="verse">It was hard for the cattle to stand on their feet.</div> -<div class="verse">Some one cried, “O! look yonder—the barn is afloat!”</div> -<div class="verse">And sullen and black like a water-soaked boat,</div> -<div class="verse">They saw it sink low to its roof in the tide</div> -<div class="verse">Where the great hound had clambered in safety to ride.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fp_68.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse"><b>They saw it sink low to its roof in the tide—</b></div> -<div class="verse"><b>Where the great hound had climbed in safety to ride.</b></div> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For the current was swift and the wagon had gone</div> -<div class="verse">That the dancers had come in as others had done</div> -<div class="verse">From the lot; now away swam a cow, then another—</div> -<div class="verse">The cattle and horses all went. “’Tis no bother</div> -<div class="verse">For horses and cattle to swim for the shore,”</div> -<div class="verse">The “Oracle” said, as he tore off a door;</div> -<div class="verse">And he would have jumped headlong with door in the flood,</div> -<div class="verse">But the men held him fast while the women all stood</div> -<div class="verse">There and screamed till a panicky feeling went ’round</div> -<div class="verse">To all that was left of the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">They heard a shrill whistle, and help seemed at hand,</div> -<div class="verse">For around the great bend came the steamer <i>Renand</i>;</div> -<div class="verse">Their hearts filled with hope; to their eyes came the tear</div> -<div class="verse">That sprang from their joy as the steamer came near.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> -<div class="verse">With frantic wild gestures, they signaled the boat;</div> -<div class="verse">She was coming their way, they with rapture could note.</div> -<div class="verse">Then another shrill whistle—a strange, startled scream.</div> -<div class="verse">She turned from her course and she fled down the stream</div> -<div class="verse">As though their loud yelling had filled her with fear—</div> -<div class="verse">Apast them she sped like a frightened white deer.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ah! the tears of the sweet, pretty dancers would call</div> -<div class="verse">For a saint or dare-devil to rescue them all.</div> -<div class="verse">They could look to the hill to see daring men steer</div> -<div class="verse">With effort to reach them, and once they came near,</div> -<div class="verse">But were carried away by the rush of the tide.</div> -<div class="verse">And often again was it desperately tried</div> -<div class="verse">By many who valiantly fought with the wave,</div> -<div class="verse">And risked their own life, hoping others to save,</div> -<div class="verse">While ev’ry frail dancer stood near to the river,</div> -<div class="verse">Despairing at each unsuccessful endeavor.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The “Oracle” said, “Could I swim like Leander</div> -<div class="verse">Of Hellespont fame, I would take one and land her</div> -<div class="verse">On shore, then return for another, and so on,</div> -<div class="verse">Until every fair dancer around here was gone;</div> -<div class="verse">For having the courage and vigor and vim,</div> -<div class="verse">I wish in my heart that I knew how to swim.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> -<div class="verse">But there’s no use to worry, or climb a steep hill</div> -<div class="verse">Till a person comes to it—you’ve heard of that—still</div> -<div class="verse">If I only could swim, I could quickly go through it,</div> -<div class="verse">Should the river still rise—I may anyway do it.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then he called on Peneus, he thought it was best,</div> -<div class="verse">As he’d often approached him when sorely distressed;</div> -<div class="verse">He was sure that Peneus would listen to him;</div> -<div class="verse">He would have him turn trouble, though hope was so dim,</div> -<div class="verse">To a travesty there on the acre of ground;</div> -<div class="verse">But the river god nowhere it seemed could be found,</div> -<div class="verse">(He may have been busy with some other care),</div> -<div class="verse">And they got no reply to the “Oracle’s” prayer;</div> -<div class="verse">Then the “Oracle” said he would try his own scheme;</div> -<div class="verse">So he stretched forth his hand and commanded the stream:</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O, wayward stream!</div> -<div class="verse">Return and to thy channel keep,</div> -<div class="verse">Where thou hast droned in drowsy sleep</div> -<div class="verse">For full a century of years,</div> -<div class="verse">And have our love without our fears.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> -<div class="verse">How have we loved thee, O, great stream!</div> -<div class="verse">And thou hast been to us a theme</div> -<div class="verse">As pleasing as the sweetest dream,</div> -<div class="verse">Why do you turn with sullen hate,</div> -<div class="verse">All swollen in your drunken sate?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Relent! Relent!</div> -<div class="verse">Abate the currents that have bent</div> -<div class="verse">Thy body so enormously.</div> -<div class="verse">O, backward to thy channel flow</div> -<div class="verse">And stay thy riot and its woe.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But the flood was too big for one man to assuage;</div> -<div class="verse">It continued to rise and to roar and to rage;</div> -<div class="verse">It had gotten a start, and it now seemed too late</div> -<div class="verse">For the great dancing master to check or abate.</div> -<div class="verse">He realized that he had been in the wrong</div> -<div class="verse">To neglect to attend to the flood for so long.</div> -<div class="verse">“At first I had seemed to enjoy it,” he said,</div> -<div class="verse">“But, like dancing, the fiddler will have to be paid;</div> -<div class="verse">Still, ’tis better,” said he, “not to let our hearts worry,</div> -<div class="verse">For the flood will subside when it gets o’er its flurry.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> -<div class="verse">Some complained that he’d uselessly raised their hope high,</div> -<div class="verse">Then the “Oracle” said he would save them or die.</div> -<div class="verse">He proposed that he build them a raft out of logs,</div> -<div class="verse">And he worked for a while, but his fine dancing togs</div> -<div class="verse">Got bedraggled—he’d fallen asprawl in the flood,</div> -<div class="verse">Where he floundered around in the water and mud,</div> -<div class="verse">Till they grappled him out. Oh! it seemed such a shame!</div> -<div class="verse">He looked at his raiment, he spoke of his fame;</div> -<div class="verse">He declared he just knew he looked worse than the hound</div> -<div class="verse">That had gone with the barn from the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then ev’ry one felt they had lost their last chance,</div> -<div class="verse">Whilst the “Oracle” stood like a man in a trance—</div> -<div class="verse">He had lost his fine book of dance-calls, with its verses,</div> -<div class="verse">Morose from his losses, in silence or curses,</div> -<div class="verse">He lamented the folly of building the raft,</div> -<div class="verse">For misfortune had struck with a swift, heavy shaft,</div> -<div class="verse">And his proud spirit broke when he saw that the flood</div> -<div class="verse">Had bespattered his coat with the yellow clay mud.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas a humiliation, deserving compassion—</div> -<div class="verse">Most people lose heart when they go out of fashion.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> -<div class="verse">So Simon, to comfort him, said, “Do not worry;</div> -<div class="verse">The flood will subside when it gets o’er its flurry.”</div> -<div class="verse">“And your rhymes,” said the wit, “They were mostly old rhymes;</div> -<div class="verse">They were fine, to be sure, but ’tis better at times</div> -<div class="verse">To write something new; on occasions like these</div> -<div class="verse">One should write on the spot of the thing that he sees.”</div> -<div class="verse">“For shame!” cried Neoma. She led him away</div> -<div class="verse">To help the poor “Oracle” scrub off the clay;</div> -<div class="verse">She rubbed him and scrubbed him and wheedled him ’round,</div> -<div class="verse">Till he said he was glad that he didn’t get drowned.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Now the house became flooded, and to the top floor</div> -<div class="verse">They were driven. In eddies the flood-waters tore</div> -<div class="verse">Around through the hall and the parlor below</div> -<div class="verse">Till it burst through the windows to vent its o’erflow.</div> -<div class="verse">The tuneful piano went waltzing around</div> -<div class="verse">With the tables for partners or what else it found,</div> -<div class="verse">Till, dizzy at times, it would bump on the wall,</div> -<div class="verse">When its vibrating strings gave a discordant brawl</div> -<div class="verse">As if in abandon it turned debauchée</div> -<div class="verse">To sicken their heart with its sad revelry.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> -<div class="verse">They saw as they looked from the windows above</div> -<div class="verse">The bric-a-brac leaving, with emblems of love,</div> -<div class="verse">An album, the old family Bible, and all</div> -<div class="verse">Of Twilley’s fine pictures that hung on the wall.</div> -<div class="verse">They saw them pass out of the windows below,</div> -<div class="verse">Both single and double they filed in a row</div> -<div class="verse">Out into the world on the turbulent wave</div> -<div class="verse">To swim or to find there a watery grave;</div> -<div class="verse">And last came that motto, the “God Bless Our Home,”</div> -<div class="verse">Went floating away on the yellowish foam.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">That grieved the poor Twilley. He didn’t care much</div> -<div class="verse">For pictures and albums or Bibles and such,</div> -<div class="verse">But that “God Bless Our Home” was the pride of his heart;</div> -<div class="verse">He always had thought it a piece of fine art;</div> -<div class="verse">He had spent a whole Sunday in placing the shells,</div> -<div class="verse">And had worked on it two or three days at odd spells—</div> -<div class="verse">Smash! “Great Heavens!” asked Simon, “What can that all be?”</div> -<div class="verse">“Oh, nothing,” said Twilley, “except a huge tree</div> -<div class="verse">That is raking its length ’gainst the house as it passes</div> -<div class="verse">To break a few more of the front window glasses.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> -<div class="verse">Day and night they had kept the tired vigil while waiting,</div> -<div class="verse">And hoping the waters would soon be abating;</div> -<div class="verse">But nearer and nearer the high waters rose</div> -<div class="verse">A space at a time as a risin’ flood grows;</div> -<div class="verse">And if they were hungry, they thought not of that;</div> -<div class="verse">If they wanted for sleep, still, they wide-awake sat.</div> -<div class="verse">They feared that some madness would seize them while there,</div> -<div class="verse">For they felt a great dreading of something so dire</div> -<div class="verse">That menaced and seemed like the haunting of fate,</div> -<div class="verse">And frowned with a visage as ugly as hate.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The threats of the weak brought alarm to the stronger,</div> -<div class="verse">For to some the suspense was unbearable longer,</div> -<div class="verse">And a murmur was heard of a way that was brief,</div> -<div class="verse">To end all in a plunge that would bring a relief;</div> -<div class="verse">From the tense agony and the painful delay</div> -<div class="verse">Of a hope against hope through the night and the day;</div> -<div class="verse">For although it is true, there is hope while there’s breath,</div> -<div class="verse">Still some rush to death while the end <i>is</i> but death,</div> -<div class="verse">As though anguish of thought finds its only surcease</div> -<div class="verse">To yield quickly to death and its certain release.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fp_76.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse"><b>Lord, help us and save us; we ask for no crown,</b></div> -<div class="verse"><b>But we do want the house till the flood shall go down.</b></div> -</div></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For it seemed there were few who had thought from the first</div> -<div class="verse">That the flood would go on till it came to the worst:</div> -<div class="verse">The Cynic sat anxious, with face blanching white,</div> -<div class="verse">His tremors betraying the state of his fright;</div> -<div class="verse">The wit, who had jabbered his thin airy gibes,</div> -<div class="verse">Now turned him to whining in whimpering dribes;</div> -<div class="verse">And minus the old-time bravado he wore,</div> -<div class="verse">Was the “Oracle” nervously pacing the floor.</div> -<div class="verse">They were all much alike as they thought of their fate,</div> -<div class="verse">But they counseled each other to stay there and wait.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">In the room where they danced on the evening before</div> -<div class="verse">The water was slushing above the hall door.</div> -<div class="verse">It had followed them there as they moved up above,</div> -<div class="verse">Persistently followed—they felt the house move!</div> -<div class="verse">Their hearts then stood still, and the “Oracle” said,</div> -<div class="verse">“Let us pray;” so the dancers knelt down while he prayed,</div> -<div class="verse">As only a helpless, dependent one can.</div> -<div class="verse">He ended his prayer in the way he began—</div> -<div class="verse">“Lord help us and save us! We asked for no crown,</div> -<div class="verse">But we do want the house till the flood should go down.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> -<div class="verse">His praying seemed awkward to some, it is true,</div> -<div class="verse">But the most of them thought that perhaps it would do,</div> -<div class="verse">For the house was still standing when prayer was through,</div> -<div class="verse">Still, they heard the house creaking—’twas leaning some, too—</div> -<div class="verse">Then a yellow wave came with a swell, and it made</div> -<div class="verse">The house groan as it turned half around, but it stayed</div> -<div class="verse">For a moment to get its true bearings just right,</div> -<div class="verse">Then it plunged till the top floor alone was in sight,</div> -<div class="verse">And swiftly it sped as it whirled down the stream,</div> -<div class="verse">Sans captain or pilot, sans rudder or steam.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And once the house tilted when bumping ground</div> -<div class="verse">Till very far listed, but righted around;</div> -<div class="verse">Then the smashing of timbers that made their hearts ache,</div> -<div class="verse">And the strained and warped floors that seemed ready to break</div> -<div class="verse">Made them shudder and fly when the waters would swirl</div> -<div class="verse">As ever and ever they sped in a whirl,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> -<div class="verse">And the world seemed unsteady with nothing to stay</div> -<div class="verse">While the hills flew in circles a distance away,</div> -<div class="verse">And they all but gave up to the fate that had frowned</div> -<div class="verse">As they went with the house from the acre of ground.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">They were dumb. Not a soul but had ceased to complain;</div> -<div class="verse">They felt they were doomed, and to struggle was vain.</div> -<div class="verse">Some covered their faces and muffled their ears;</div> -<div class="verse">Some trembled and shook as with palsy from fears.</div> -<div class="verse">Like children they clung to each other and waited</div> -<div class="verse">In terror and silence, as if they were fated,</div> -<div class="verse">Or looked at each other wild-eyed and in wonder,</div> -<div class="verse">And hurdling together were thrown asunder</div> -<div class="verse">By the surging and swirling of onrushing water,</div> -<div class="verse">And were pent up and helpless as lambs for the slaughter.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then the dark moment passed and a hope came again;</div> -<div class="verse">It came like the smile of the sun through the rain,</div> -<div class="verse">For the current had turned and toward the south veering,</div> -<div class="verse">They could see, with a joy, that the hills they were nearing;</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> -<div class="verse">And the house was now slowing as onward it bore,</div> -<div class="verse">While people came running to meet them on shore,</div> -<div class="verse">As nearer and nearer the house-boat had veered,</div> -<div class="verse">Where were all of the town folks who heard and had feared</div> -<div class="verse">They were lost, and among them the care-worn mothers,</div> -<div class="verse">The anxious old fathers and sisters and brothers.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then out from the shore came the same dinky “John”</div> -<div class="verse">That the trusting old fiddler had rode away on,</div> -<div class="verse">And strange though it seemed, there was Dan in the boat</div> -<div class="verse">That had weathered the storms and was still there afloat.</div> -<div class="verse">Then the cheers of the dancers rang out to the shore,</div> -<div class="verse">And ev’ry eye swam with the tears that it bore.</div> -<div class="verse">The “Oracle” suddenly came to life, too,</div> -<div class="verse">As often ’tis found where there’s hope people do;</div> -<div class="verse">He shouted and waved with the wildest delight,</div> -<div class="verse">When the recognized forms of his friends came in sight.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">He cried, “Oh, we’ve all had a lark of a time!</div> -<div class="verse">We’ve been up to Twilley’s to dance to my rhyme,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> -<div class="verse">And water-bound there since we left the old town,</div> -<div class="verse">We have danced day and night, and the most the way down;</div> -<div class="verse">We grew tired of the place, and we thought we’d come home.</div> -<div class="verse">All the dancers are with us—they wanted to come.</div> -<div class="verse">As the stream was rough swimming and too deep to wade,</div> -<div class="verse">We concluded to come on the trip the house made.</div> -<div class="verse">How’s the folks at Dinwiddie? There’s no use to worry,</div> -<div class="verse">The flood will subside when it gets o’er its flurry.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Though the moments had seemed to the dancers so frightened,</div> -<div class="verse">Like so many hours, yet their hearts were so lightened</div> -<div class="verse">With hope, that they took the bed-slats and rowed on</div> -<div class="verse">With a strange, nervous strength that seemed hardly their own,</div> -<div class="verse">After all of the trials through which they had gone,</div> -<div class="verse">And the dauntless bass-fiddler rowed swiftly the “John,”</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> -<div class="verse">To help them to land near the dancers’ own town,</div> -<div class="verse">Where some cried, and some danced with the crowds that came down,</div> -<div class="verse">And many gave thanks with a quivering lip—</div> -<div class="verse">They were safe! They were safe! from the perilous trip.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There the house that the dancers had come in was moored,</div> -<div class="verse">Where the tale of its marvelous venture still lured</div> -<div class="verse">The thousands long after the flood had declined,</div> -<div class="verse">Till piece-meal from vandals and weather combined,</div> -<div class="verse">It fell to decay, or was carried away.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas a favorite pastime on any fine day</div> -<div class="verse">For the thoughtless to waltz through the house with a song</div> -<div class="verse">And leaving to carry a relic along,</div> -<div class="verse">Until nothing was left of the house that withstood</div> -<div class="verse">The perils that came with the eighty-four flood.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The tall trees are standing, still standing alone,</div> -<div class="verse">Where they whisper each other the nights they have known,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> -<div class="verse">And if they seem lonely without the old house,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet the birds in the evenings go there to carouse.</div> -<div class="verse">There they chatter and sing in their merriest lay,</div> -<div class="verse">And, like dancers, choose partners in much the same way;</div> -<div class="verse">And the boatmen will tell how they sometimes have heard</div> -<div class="verse">There the singing of songs—not the notes of a bird—</div> -<div class="verse">As though festive, gay spirits still hovered around,</div> -<div class="verse">Late, late in the night on the acre of ground.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_83.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote"> -<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</p> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> -</div></div> - -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DANCE OF DINWIDDIE***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 65786-h.htm or 65786-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/7/8/65786">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/5/7/8/65786</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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