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Written from an incident that occurred soon after the famous Eastern-land speculation, and the bursting of that bubble, which left insolvent so many Banks and individuals, about the year 1836–37.

I heard the knocker gently fall,
And rose to answer to the call;
When there a little stranger stood,
Serene, beneath her faded hood;
While under it the wintry air
Went searching for her golden hair,
To catch the curls, and throw them out,
And twirl and toss them all about.

She had a dewy, azure eye,
As bright and soft as summer sky,—
A pretty, dimpled, rosy cheek,
And modest mouth, her wish to speak.
And when the little Emma told
That she was seven winters old,
I thought the raiment that she wore
Might well have numbered seven more.

Her cloak—with hardly strength to hold
The name of one—looked thin and cold;
While not a tuck in Emma's gown
Remained, again to let it down,
An inch or two of skirt to hide,
Which proved that any skirt, to bide
Its time and chances, smooth and rough,
Must first be made of sterner stuff.

And at the tip of Emma's shoe,
Its little tenant, peeping through,
Evinced that it was never put
Upon a slow or idle foot;
While by her slender hand she bore
Her fortune round from door to door,
Within a kerchief wrapped with care
About a piece of wooden ware!

“I want to sell you this,” she said,
“For twenty pence, to buy us bread:
It is a piggin, smooth and tight,
That father finished late last night,
When I was tired, and sleeping sound;—
For yesterday I carried round
Another, just like this, that sold
For bread as much as it would hold.

“That served for supper,—and, to-day,
For breakfast, ere I came away.
Before we ate it, father prayed
That we no more might feel afraid
Of never being daily fed:—
For he had spread the Book, and read
The story, in its pleasant words,
About the Prophet and the birds.

“But father cannot walk, like him:
He 's sick, and has a ruined limb:
He cannot stand and use his feet,
But does his work upon a seat.
To save the ship from being lost,
He suffered by the storm and frost;
And then was brought, so changed, from sea,
We thought at first it was n't he!

“He was the Cooper;—and had made
So many voyages, he had laid
In store, he says, from all, a sum
To keep for age and wants to come.
He placed it in the Bank; and felt
That silver there would never melt,
As in the purse, or in the hands,
Or down among the Eastern lands.

“When he was on that stormy trip,
And lost his health to save the ship,
The world turned upside down so quick,
Poor mother says, her heart grew sick
To see the changes, and to know
How all he 'd saved so long must go!
Though now, she 'd fain give ten times more,
To see him well, and as before.

“And father says,—with all his care
For us, and all his pains to bear,—
When he was told the bank had failed,
The merchant, too, for whom he sailed,—
And he unpaid,—it was a shock,
As when a vessel strikes a rock!
For then his last remaining rope
Was fastened to the anchor, Hope!

“But since he 's better, and so well,
He makes such things as this, to sell;
While mother sews, and Katy knits,
And Eddie in the cradle sits,
Or leans against a chair, and plays,
And laughs to see the shavings blaze;
He says he hopes the rudest gale
Will never make his courage ‘fail.’

“He'll thank you much for having bought
His new, white piggin that I brought;
'T will make them all so glad, when I
Go home with this, the loaves to buy.
For father, though he cannot walk,
Will smile, and use his sailor talk;
And says, his little sail is set
To scud, and shun the breaker, debt.

“He says, when too much sail is spread,
And one neglects to spy ahead,
To see on what his bark may dash,
He sometimes learns it by the crash!—
But skilful seamen have an eye
To rock and shoal,—to sea and sky,—
To every cord and plank, and seek
To find and stop the slightest leak.

“But then he adds, that, when a man
Does all he should, and all he can,
He cannot always shun the storm
That from a sudden cloud may form;—
'T is therefore ever best to be
At peace with Him who rules the sea;—
To keep his compass in the heart,
Though canvas, spars, and cables part.”