Why should I dwell here all alone, shut out From the free, natural joys that fit my age? Lo, I am tall and strong, well skilled to hunt, Patient of toil and hunger, and not yet Have seen the danger which I dared not look Full in the face; what hinders me to be A mighty Brave and Chief among my kin?" So, taking up his arrows and his bow, As if to hunt, he journeyed swiftly on, Until he gained the wigwams of his tribe, Where, choosing out a bride, he soon forgot, In all the fret and bustle of new life, The little Sheemah and his father's charge. Now when the sister found her brother gone, And that, for many days, he came not back, She wept for Sheemah more than for herself; For Love bides longest in a woman's heart, And flutters many times before he flies, And then doth perch so nearly, that a word May lure him back, as swift and glad as light; And Duty lingers even when Love is gone Oft looking out in hope of his return; And, after Duty hath been driven forth, Then Selfishness creeps in the last of all, Warming her lean hands at the lonely hearth, And crouching o'er the embers, to shut out Whatever paltry warmth and light are left, With avaricious greed, from all beside. So, for long months, the sister hunted wide, And cared for little Sheemah tenderly; But, daily more and more, the loneliness Grew wearisome, and to herself she sighed, "Am I not fair? at least the glassy pool, That hath no cause to flatter, tells me so; But, O, how flat and meaningless the tale, Unless it tremble on a lover's tongue! 'eauty hath no true glass, except it be 1 the sweet privacy of loving eyes." hus deemed she idly, and forgot the lore Which she had learned of nature and the woods, 'hat beauty's chief reward is to itself, and that the eyes of Love reflect alone 'he inward fairness, which is blurred and lost Jnless kept clear and white by Duty's care. So she went forth and sought the haunts of men, ind, being wedded, in her household cares, oon, like the elder brother, quite forgot The little Sheemah and her father's charge. But Sheemah, left alone within the lodge, Waited and waited, with a shrinking heart, Thinking each rustle was his sister's step, ill hope grew less and less, and then went out, And every sound was changed from hope to fear. Few sounds there were :-the dropping of a nut, The squirrel's chirrup, and the jay's harsh scream, Autumn's sad remnants of blithe Summer's cheer, Heard at long intervals, seemed but to make he dreadful void of silence silenter. oon what small store his sister left was gone, nd, through the Autumn, he made shift to live On roots and berries, gathered in much fear Of wolves, whose ghastly howl he heard ofttimes, Iollow and hungry, at the dead of night. But Winter came at last, and, when the snow, Thick-heaped for gleaming leagues o'er hill and plain, Spread its unbroken silence over all, Made bold by hunger, he was fain to glean, Grim Boaz, who, sharp-ribbed and gaunt, yet feared Till, by degrees, the wolf and he grew friends, Late in the Spring, when all the ice was gone, A child that seemed fast changing to a wolf, STANZAS ON FREEDOM. MEN! whose boast it is that ye Women! who shall one day bear Deeds to make the roused blood rush Is true Freedom but to break They are slaves who fear to speak |