The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1845-01-15

There were some that ran and some that leapt
Like %troutlets in a pool.
Away they sped with gamesome minds,
And souls untouched by sin;
To a level mead they come, and there
They drove the wickets in:
Pleasantly shone the setting sun
Over the town of Lynn.
Like s~portive deer they coursed about,
And shouted as they rain
Turning to mirth all things Of earth,
AS only boyhood can;
But the usher sat remote from all,
A melancholy man
His hat was off, his vest apart,
To catch heavens blessed breeze;
For a burning thought was in his brow,
And his bosom i'll at ease:
So he lean'd his head on his hands, and read
The book between his knees!
Leaf after leaf he turned it DER,
Nor evor glanced aside;
For the peace Of his soul he read that book,
In the golden eventide:
Much study had made him very lean,
And pale, and leaden-cyed.
At last he shut the pondcrous tome;
With a fast and lervid grasp
lie strain'd the dusky covers close,
And fixed the brazcn hasp:
so God! could so close my mind,
And clasp it with a~clasp!"
Then leap'ng ON his feet upright,
Some moody turns he took
Now up the mead, then down tho mead,
And past a shady nook
And 10! he saw a little boy
That poured upon a book!
"My gentle lad, what is't you cad
Romance, or fairy fableH
0: is it some historic page,
OF kings and crowns unstable?"
The young boy gave an upward glance
at is 'The death of Abel"
The usher took three hasty strides,
AS smit with sudden pain
Six hlsty strides beyond the place,
Then slowly back again:
And down he sat beside the lad,
And ,alk'd 10 him Of Cain;
And long since then, of bloody men,
Whose deeds tradition saves;
Or lonely folk cut of unseen,
And hid in sudden graves;
Of horrid stabs in groves %forlorR,
And murders done in caves;
And how the sprites of injured men
Shrek upward from the sod
Aye, how the ghostly hand will point
TO show the burial clod;
And unknown facts of guilty acts
Are seen in dreams from God!
lie told Low murderers walk'd the earth
Beneath the curse of CAIN
With crimson clouds before their eyes,
And flames about their brain;
For blood has left upon their souls
Its everlasting stain!
"And WE'LL" quoth he, II know, for truth,
Their pangs must be extreme
Woe, woe, unutterablc woe
Who spill life's sacred stream:
For Why? Methought, last night, | wrought
A murder in a dream!
"Ono that had never done me wrong
A feeble man, and old;
led him TO a lonely field,
The moon shone clear and cold:
Now here, said ], this man shall die,
And l will have his gold!
"Two sudden blows with a ragged stick,
And one with a heavy stone,
One hurried cash with u hasiy knife
And then the deed was done:
There was nothing lying at my foot,
But lileless flesh and bone!
"Nothing but %lifeless flesh and bone,
That could not do me i'll;
And yet l fcar'd him all the more,
For lying there so still:
There was manhood in his look,
That manhood could not kill!
"And 10! the universal air,
Seern'd lit with ghasily flame
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes
Were locking low in blame:
i took The dead man by the hand,
And call'd upon his name!
"Oh God! it made me quake to see
Such sense within the slain!
But when | touch'd the lifeless clay,
Tho blood gush'd out amain!
For every clot, a burning spot
Was scorching in my brain!
"My head was like an ardent coal,
My heart as solid ice;
MY wretched, wreiched soul, | knew,
Was at the DEVILS price:
a dozen times groan'd-the dead
Has never groaned but twice!