Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-04-24

That hung to dry upon the old cross-beaml
A merry, RIGGING laugh, and Hulda caught
The flying cap, and hastily began
To close the sash and yet, with wistful lock,
What made the little maiden linger still
Beside the lattice? All, as unfedged birds
The growth of wings may feel, or as the pines
On summer days will murmur OF the sea
The restless main whereon tteir fragrant boushs
Ere long must battle-even thus n child
AT times is conscious oil the days to come.
And so it was our little Hulda stood
That bright spring mornihg-thinking new, strange
thoughts
From brier and brushwood, in the neighbors yard,
The swelling lilac buds, the fresh ploughed fields
Her brother stood-ah, yes-anofher, too.
sudden rumble-wild, black clouds, anon
. tickle April skiesl But Hulda
Them not :; for, with happy smile, she turned
Away. just then, sat down beside the wheel,
Unwound the tangled thread, sorted once more
The matted piles of wso and merrily
She hummed the measure of simple song,
That seemed the echo other own glad thoughts
4 sanlh sky and sunlt earth
Blue hills and a btuer rirer,
Cool forest depths mhere the springs hare dirfh
Green fields There the grasses qufcer'
4far, bright Future-,cithout and ocithin-
Glad Hope to my heart is bringing,
For golden Hread do the grim Fdfes SPIN
Where they heard red6redst singing
Another morning-just two hours old
Sunday morning, clear and cold and still
Without, the sickle Of a waning moon
Is dropping from the hand of Night; the steel
A sharp, fresh wind is creeping from the marsh
Rustng the dead leaves in the nal ed woods
Aud wak'ning, here and there, shvering bird
That came too early from its tropic haunts.
Within the little farm house all Is still
save the clocks ticking in the hall below,
And, now and then, crickets chrp upon
The hearth or scampering of mice between
The loosened laths.
Twics-thricel and yet again!
o God what can it mean the cry-the shrek
The loud alarum call the tramPlng feet
The echoing clatter on the bridge below
and hark, the same weird cry u half mile oni
Like startled doe, and doubling If she walked
Or slept, the little Huda rose, ran down
The creaking stairs threw wide the great hall door
And catching one last word, "The BritishP clear
And loud the Wild aarum cry she bore
From room to room. until the old house rang
With gh0rt like echoes. In his upper loit
The brother heard, and from its hiding place
Beneath the caves, he seized the Cd heirloom.
The heavy fowng-piece his father bore
At Fontenac when in the fierce assault
He fell with mortal wound. "The red coats -ha
They shall not say we know but children's play
Wh bullets s. Inis Sla als nsUer ss0 yom yea his
While, nervously, he rubbed the rusty lock
And made resolve. in all the strength and zeal
or young, hot blood to prove himself that day
A brave mans worthy SON. Then, with smile,
The proud boy.soldier kissed away the tears
On Hulda's cheeks, soothed the poor mothers fear,
Shouldered his gun, and hastened with light,
Fleet step, to Join the neighbor's son who STOOD
just at the door. and standing, looked within,
And, looking, read in IIulth,'s eyes-ah well,
A certain thing that neryed him for the fight
All, wella day! Why should here repeat
The story OF that Sabbath? Word for word
You know it weil-the lght at Lexington
The onward march to Concord where the stores
They say were hid the conflict short and .harp
just at the bridge-the sudden British rou-
The fierce bush lighting farther on; a. ii then
The broken ranks, the backward flight, tho first
Great bow for freedom. SO the record stands,
And to-day from well-thumbetl histories,
Our careless children rattle of the facts.
And yet, when all is said what DO we know
Ofthat one day-beyond the bare outline!
In IIulda's home the laggard hours crept by
AS in a fearful ul Cam the gathering feet,
The quick, excited cries, had tied away
Ere long ITO Lexington they said the troops
Had hastened); yet the very silence seemed
Like that dead calm before the hurricane.
A distant shot, and, now aud then, The smoke
And sitting breath OF powder-that was all!
\ ct Huda and the mother, as they looked
And listened, iet u sudden d. cad "A thrill
OF quick sharp agony. An, dearer far
Than cur own lives we ever hold the loved.
And our own safety when we know that their.
At stake may be, seems to our tortured minds
A very shame aud crime.
AT close of day
Still folded; and The catechsm task
The long, hard lesson dreaded all the week
Why Hul,ta had not thought of it all day
And now the last red ray had shot athwait
The pines, enlng the hours of sacred rest
For so they reokoned them from sun TO sun
And from the upper shelf the mother took
Her knitting-wOrk, while Hulda. with touch
Dull and mechanic, gan to wind, against
The morrow : stint, her distaff; just beside
The lattice window stood her wheel; the shreds
OF snow, the lazy brook, the lilac buds,
The fresh ploughed Helds beyond it was the same
Nay could it be the same iar scene she saw
But yesterinorn
A uefpinq sIy and Il mourning e0rd-
Bleak hills and bieaker rirer.-
Dark forest ieds Where the storms hare ttrth -
Bro,cn fields where The dead leares shirer.
tdim, gray future-- ,cithin and ,cithout--
Dread telr to my heart is bringing,
Tor in tie chU dusk, ehen truth is dogLt
Iheard-a "hppoor wW singing
seven times the orchard boushs, now with their
weight
The gray old woods the wild flowers once again
Pass on in long procession; vi0ets
And trembling snow'drops, frail hepatcas,
I.innGa bells, give place TO brighter queens
Tue stately golden rod, the flaming torch
OF cardinals. and deep, rich asters-like
The summers sun and shadow, incarnatel
Within the neghbor's yard where burned the brush
And brier,-the blade the ear, the full corn stands
Al length And all this time the tide Of war
In vast stream throughout The land their bloom
The bright June roses scarce had She'd when came
The bloody conflict on old Charlestown heights
And, in the farOG South, the ringing voice
OF bold young Patrick Henry echoed back
Heroic deeds of stanch Green Mountain boysl
Ticonderoga,-EthanA Aliens CHARGE
The brilliant siege al Old Crown Point all famed
To brighter hame the patriotic fire ,
That flashed throughout New England; now and
then
Came t:dings of defeat, of traitors plot
OF tosome marches, sunerings on land
On sea, endured with spartan yaior; then
A peal-long, loud and clear that shook the seat
OF monSrchs and to all the world declared
An IRdepeadeaf Nation, henceiorth bonnd
To stand united-heart and hand and soul
Against all tyranny. And from that day
That glorious July fourth--a new race sprang
Full.armed like Minerva from the brain
OF Zeus or that strange harvest from the teeth
OF dragon slain upon the plain of 1heb0e.
Yet arnior is for war-n0t peace. boon
So dear so rare as Liberty, the seal
OF blood must bear. And long and fierce and strong
The conflict ragged while Victory plumed her wings
Now on the royal red, now on the stripes
Whose stars in those diear days cleaned faint and
few