 | Hagar |  |
II. PART II.
The days were growing short, the nights were long and cool;
The fields were white with frost, the ice was in the pool;
The corn was cut and shocked, and the husking all to do.
I felt too poor to hire, but I had one staunch and true.
When her morning work was done—let skies be foul or fair—
Our Lucy came with helping hand, and saved me from despair.
I had no heart to work, the world looked dark to me;
My days were full of care, my nights of misery;
I longed for leave to go a thousand miles away;
But my mother, weak and frail, entreated me to stay;
“Her days might not be long,” she said, “and she had only one,
And a mother's heart-strings twine so closely round a son.”
So I stayed on—to hear the gossips, far and wide,
Speak their praises of the groom, and their praises of the bride.
Such a wedding ne'er was known in all the country round;
“And so fair a bride and groom were rarely to be found.
Ah! Percy White deserves the prize, so frank and brave is he!
And Jenny is well mated, as 'tis meet that she should be.”
I heard them all, and husked my corn, and left the shocks behind,
And longed sometimes to scatter them, like husks upon the wind.
The fields were white with frost, the ice was in the pool;
The corn was cut and shocked, and the husking all to do.
I felt too poor to hire, but I had one staunch and true.
When her morning work was done—let skies be foul or fair—
Our Lucy came with helping hand, and saved me from despair.
I had no heart to work, the world looked dark to me;
My days were full of care, my nights of misery;
198
But my mother, weak and frail, entreated me to stay;
“Her days might not be long,” she said, “and she had only one,
And a mother's heart-strings twine so closely round a son.”
So I stayed on—to hear the gossips, far and wide,
Speak their praises of the groom, and their praises of the bride.
Such a wedding ne'er was known in all the country round;
“And so fair a bride and groom were rarely to be found.
Ah! Percy White deserves the prize, so frank and brave is he!
And Jenny is well mated, as 'tis meet that she should be.”
I heard them all, and husked my corn, and left the shocks behind,
And longed sometimes to scatter them, like husks upon the wind.
When the hard day's work was o'er, and I sat glum and still,
And looked into the fire, and thought, “Life was a bitter pill;
What was the use of living on, so harassed day by day?
I would that I were wandering a thousand miles away.”
My mother knit beside me there, her face was sad and pale;
She always had an anxious look, and she had grown so frail,
The shadows dancing on the walls could scarce more ghostly seem.
But I was blind and deaf to all, wrapped in a selfish dream.
Only Lucy, going back and forth, stopped now and then to say
Some little word of comfort, in a homely, quiet way.
She always sang about her work; her voice was sweet to me—
The songs of birds, the water's gush in her singing seemed to be.
I thought of all the plants that bloom the busy summer through:
The Heart's Ease was the most like her, so bright and cheery too.
It little minds the frost or snow, it cares not for the cold;
It is so full of sunshine, it thaws the frost-bound mould.
While I was thinking thus, and gazing in the fire,
A stern voice said to me, “Why sit you in the mire?
Be up and doing, man! the black ooze closes round!
Many are they who sink—few find the solid ground.
And not alone you go; your mother's heart you break;
She loves her son so well, she'd perish for his sake.
And there is one beside—she works and sings all day,
But through the long, long night she can only weep and pray.
You think your wound is deep; you cry aloud with pain;
She covers close her hurt—would die and not complain.
'Tis strange how blind you are; with healing balm love waits.
You feel 'tis heaven within, yet stand without the gates.
Forget the false, false love! go forth to meet the true!
The roses are all dead, but the Heart's Ease blooms for you.”
I listened to the voice, as I watched the rising flame;
'Tis true 'twas harsh and stern, yet it greatly eased my pain;
And when the winter passed, and the spring came glad and gay,
I had won a love so true—the false love crept away.
And looked into the fire, and thought, “Life was a bitter pill;
What was the use of living on, so harassed day by day?
I would that I were wandering a thousand miles away.”
My mother knit beside me there, her face was sad and pale;
199
The shadows dancing on the walls could scarce more ghostly seem.
But I was blind and deaf to all, wrapped in a selfish dream.
Only Lucy, going back and forth, stopped now and then to say
Some little word of comfort, in a homely, quiet way.
She always sang about her work; her voice was sweet to me—
The songs of birds, the water's gush in her singing seemed to be.
I thought of all the plants that bloom the busy summer through:
The Heart's Ease was the most like her, so bright and cheery too.
It little minds the frost or snow, it cares not for the cold;
It is so full of sunshine, it thaws the frost-bound mould.
While I was thinking thus, and gazing in the fire,
A stern voice said to me, “Why sit you in the mire?
Be up and doing, man! the black ooze closes round!
Many are they who sink—few find the solid ground.
And not alone you go; your mother's heart you break;
She loves her son so well, she'd perish for his sake.
And there is one beside—she works and sings all day,
But through the long, long night she can only weep and pray.
You think your wound is deep; you cry aloud with pain;
200
'Tis strange how blind you are; with healing balm love waits.
You feel 'tis heaven within, yet stand without the gates.
Forget the false, false love! go forth to meet the true!
The roses are all dead, but the Heart's Ease blooms for you.”
I listened to the voice, as I watched the rising flame;
'Tis true 'twas harsh and stern, yet it greatly eased my pain;
And when the winter passed, and the spring came glad and gay,
I had won a love so true—the false love crept away.
| Hagar | |