Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-11-26
Faom the Atlantic Monthly for Decemb ber.
John Underhill.
By JOHN 6. WHITTIER.

OUuu OuuCEullls
By JOHN 6. WHITTIER.
a score of years had come and gone
Since the Pilgrims landed Plymouth stone,
When Captain Underhill, bearing scars
From Indian ambush and Flemish wars,
Lett three-hilled Boston and wandered down.
East by north, to Cocheco town.
with Vane the younger in counsel sweet
He had sat at Anna Hutchnson's feet
AND when the bolt of Punishment fell
On the head of his sanity oracle
He had shared her i'll her good report,
And braved the wrath of the General Court.
He shook from his feet as he rode away
The dust of the Massachusetts Bay,
The world might bless and the world might ban
What did it matter to the perfect man,
To whom the freedom of earth was given,
Proof against sin, and sure of heaven?
He cheered his heart as he rode along
With screed of Scripture and holy song,
Or thought how he rode with his lances free
BY the lower Rhine and the Zuyder Zee,
Till his wood-path grew to a trodden road,
And Hilton P Point in the distance showed.
He saw the church with the blockhouse nigh.
And lacking to windward low and crank,
The little shallop from Strawberry Bank;
And he rose in his stirrups and looked abroad
over land and water, and pr aised the Lord.
Goodly and stately and grave to see
Into the clearing's space rode he,
With the sun on the hilt of his sword in sheath,
And his silver buckles and spurs beneath,
And the settlers welcomed him zone and all,
From swift Quampeagan to Comic Fall.
And he said to the elders: " Lo, come
AS the way seemed open to seek home.
Somewhat the Lord h ath wrought by my hands
In the Narragansett and Netherlands,
And if here ye have work for Christian man
will tarry, and serve ye as best can.
81 boast not of gifts, but fain wonld own
The wonderful favor God hath shown,
The special mercy vouchsafed one day
On the shore of Narragansett Bay,
AS sat, with my pipe, from the camp aside
And mused like Isaac at eventde.
" A sudden sweetness of peace found
A garment of gladness wrapped me round;
l felt from the law of works released,
The strife of the flesh and spirit ceased.
My flesh to a full assurance grew
And all l had for myself l knew.
" Now, as God ap polnteth, keep my way.
1 shall not stumble, shall not stray,
He hath taken away my fig-leaf dress,
wear the robe of his righteousness;
And the shafts of Satan no more avail
Than Pequot arrows on Christian mail"
s Tarry with u.s." the settlers cried,
Thou man of God, as our ruler and guide"
And Captain Underh!ll bowed his head,
The will of the Lord be donei " he said
And the morrow behed him sitting down
In the rulers seat in Cocheco town.
And he judged therein a just man should;
His words were just and his rule was good
He coveted not his neghbOr's land,
From the holding of bribes he shook his hand
And through the camps of the heather ran
wholesome fear of the valiant man.
But the heart is dec celtful, the good Book saith
And hath ever SAVIOR of death.
Through hymns of triumph the tempter calls,
And whose thinketh he standeth falls.
Alas ere their round the seasons ran,
There was grief in the soul OF the sanity man
The tempter's arrows that rarely fail
Had found the joints of his spiritual mail;
And men took nate of his gloomy air,
The shame in his eye, the halt in his prayer,
The signs of battle lost within,
The pain of a soul in the coils of sin.
Then whisper of scandal linked his name
With broken vows and life of blame;
And the people looked askance on him
As he walked among them sullen and grim,
Ill at ease and bitter Of word,
And prompt of quarrel with hand or sword.
None knew how, with prayer and fasting i'll i,
lie strove in the bonds of his evil viii;
But he shook himself like Samson at length,
And girded anew his loins of strength,
And bade the crier go up and down
And call together the wondering town.
Jeer and murmur and shaking of head
| Ceased as he rose in his place and said,
| " Men, brethren, and fathers, well ye know
| How came among you year ago,
| Strong in the faith that my soul was freed
| From sin of feeling thought, deed
az have sinned, I own it with grief and shame
| But not with lie on my lips l came.
Inmy blindness l verify thought my heart
Swept and garnished in every part.
He chargeth his gels with folly: he sees
The heavens unclean. Was l more than thes
| Iurge no plea. At your feet lay
The trust you gave me, and go my way,
Hate me, or pity me, you Will,
The Lord will have mercy on sinners still;
And !, who am chiefest, say to all,
Watch and pray, lest ye also fall"
| No voice made answer, bur, from the crowd,
The sound of a woman sObbing loud
Smote his heart with bitter pain,
| And into the forest he rode again,
| And the veil of its oaken leaves shut down
On his latest glimpse of COcheco town.
| CRYSTAL clear on the man of sin
Il The streams flashed up, and the sky shone in
On his cheek Of fever the cool wind blew,
The leaves dropped on him their tears OF deY
And angels of God, in the pure, sweet guise
a | OF flowers looked on him with sad surprise,
: Was his ear at fault that brook and breeze
) Sang in their saddest of minor keys?
What was it the mournful wood-thrush said ?
What whispered the pine-trees overhead?
Did he hear the Voice on his lonely way
i That Adam heard in the cool of day?
Into the desert alone rode he,
Alone with the Infinite Purity;
: And. bowing his soul to its tender rebuke,
e AS Peter did to the Masters look,
Il He measured his path with prayers of pain
al For peace with God and nature again.
b And in after years to Cocheco came
The bruit of q once familiar name;
How among the Dutch of New Netherlands,
From wild Danskamar to Haarlem sands,
A penitent soldier preached the Word,
o. And smote the heathen with Gideon's sword
a.
VAGARIEs OF A STARFIsH.-One OF
Williams College Natural History Ex!
tion writes letter to the New York /
n, from which the following is an extract
Nnhnnf NJ