Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-07-07
Seleft 2epetrg.
From he Atlaatie Monthly.
THE JAGUAR HUNT.

From he Atlantie Montsly.
THE JAGUAR HUNT.
The dark jaguar was abroad in the land;
Ills strength, his fereeness what foe could with
standg
The breath Of his anger was hot on the air.
And the white lamb Of Peace he had dragged to
his lair.
Then up rose the Farmer; he summoned his sons.
"Now saddle your horses, now look to your guns,
And he called to his hound, as he sprang from the
ground
To the back of his black paving steed with
bound.
Oh their hearts, at the word, how they tingled
They followed, all belted and booted and spurred.
Buckle tight, boysP said he, "for who gallops
with me,
Such a hunt as never before he shall seep'
@Ihis traitor, we know him. for when be was
We battered him, petted him, fed his fierce hun
ger;
But now far toe long we have borne With the
wrong,
For each morsel we tossed makes him savage and
strong"
Then said one, @He must diel' And they took up
the cry,
"For this last crime of his he must die he must
die."
But the slow eldest born sauntered sad and for
For 6is heart was at home on the fair hunting
q remember" he said, chow this fine cub we
track
Has carried me many time on his back -
And he called to his brothers, Eight gently! be
And keep the dread hound, Rctribution behind
be dark jaguar a bough in the brake
Crouched, silent and wiley, and 1.-THE as a snake;
They spied not their game, but as onward they
came,
Through the dense LEAKAGE CLEANED two red eye
balls Of flame.
Black-spotted, and mottIed, and whiskered, and
grim,
White beilied and yellow he laid on the limb,
All SO still that you saw just one tawny paw
Lightly reach through the leaves and 50 softly
withdraw.
Then shrilled his fierce cry, as the riders drew
nigh,
And he shot from the bough like bolt from the
sky
While all the black jungle re-echoed his yell.
Oh, then there were carnage by field and By food!
The green sod crimsoned, the rivers
blood,
The eorndelds were trampled, and all in their
track
The beautiful valley lay blasted and black
Now the din Of the conflict swells deadly and loud,
And the dust of the tumult rolls up like cloud;
The afar down the slope Of the Southland recedes
The wild rapid clatter galIoping steeds.
With wide nostrils smoking, and aanks dripping
The BLACK stallion bore his his bold rider before,
As onward they thpndered through forest and
A-hanting the dark jaguar to his den.
In April, sweet April, the chase was begun;
1t was April again when the hunting was done
The SHOWS Of four winters and four summers
Lay red streaked and trodden and blighted be-
tween.
Then the monster stretched all his grim length on
the ground;
His lile-blood was wasting from many a wound;
Ferocious aud CORY and snaring he lay,
Amid heaps of the whitening bones of his prey.
Then up spoke the slow eldest son, and he said,
GAN he needs now is just to be fostered and fed!
Give over the strife! Brothers, put up the knife
We viii tame him, reclaim him but not take his
life"
But the Farmer flung back the false words in his
face,
"He is of my race, who gives counsel so base!
Now let loose the hound 4" And the hound was
unbound
And like lightning the heart of the traitor he
found.
SO rapine and treason forever shall cease!''
And they wash the stained fleece Of the pale lamb
Of Peace
When, 10 strong angel stands winged and white
In wonderful raiment Of ravishing light
Peace is raised from the dead In the radiance
shall
BY the halo of glory that shines round her head,
Fair gardens shall bloom where the black jungle
grew,
And all the glad valley shall blossom anew