The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-12-24
A Ballad for Christmas Time.

The bells are loud, the bells are sweet along The
winter land:
The trees are bright with frosted sleet, and like
mailed warriors stand;
The wind sings down the southern slope of
valleys lying wide.
Where like line Of silver scope, the narrow
rivers glide.
The sea-birds cry with boding call across the
shining sand,
And on the cape the lighthouse tall sentinel
doth stand,
And fierce and high the north wind roars
down from the forest drear,
And bears far on to distant shores the leaves
made brown and sere.
Far out it meets ship that sails from distant
tropic seas,
Her masts have braved the stormiest gales, and
wooed the softest breeze.
Around the blackness of Cape Horn her out
ward way she pore,
And met the radient light of morn on Cali
fornia's Shore
Across the wide Pacifcs waves she sailed to
far Cathay,
Below her course the coral caves stretched far
long leagues away;
She heard the tiger growl his love on distant
Borneo,
And swift before the tempest drove, where
SWITCH ANTARCTIC SNOW.
Now with her weather braces taut,and royals
snugly furled,
She comes with orient fragrance fraught up
from the under world;
The sun-rays on her canvas CLEAN, the seas be-
fore her part
She sees the light of welcome stream from
out her waiting mart.
The cold wind shouts, and in the North
black line rises slow,
The trumpets of the storm blaze forth, and
high the white caps grow,
And down the gray and cloudy West the red
sun lingering falls,
While weirdly DER the oceans breast loud ring
the seagulls' calls.
Below the dark slope of the hills the sunlight
slowly fades,
And sad the sobbing tone that fills nights deep
and sombre shades;
The stars pale from the clouded sky, the
storm-roar weights tho gloom,
The cyclone notes are wild and high, and sing
song of doom.
Tomorrow brings the Christmas tide, the well
come and the cheer
That in each loving home doth bide, grown
dearer every year;
The hearth-fre now is bright and warm, and
glad with cracking song,
While out at sea the windy storm grows jubi-
liant and strong.
The brave ship breasts the sturdy blast, and
nears the echoing cape;
Fierce breakers on the roof are cast, deep
gloom the low rocks drape,
Why shines no beacon from the height, where,
like giant ghost,
The lighthouse through the sobbing night
frowns on the dreary coast.
No voice can pierce the sullen roar that fills the
fOapninp repnb
Where stern waves hurl their icy store along
the sodden beach;
The helmsman watches for the star that from
the beetling steep
should show the iialbors frothlng bar, and
light the painless deep.
Two points away he heads the ship, straight for
the reef he steers,
The fierce waves by the dark sides slip, the
wind is loud with cheers;
Death waits amid the yeasty wrath that lies
the reefs aiohs,
His bony fingers point the path where dangers
thlckest throng.
But love has seen the gloomy tower, and love
is deaths strong foe;
And where the shadows deepest lower, and
winds the loudest blow,
With brave heart speeds q winsome maid, she
gains the lighthouse stair,
And soon, amid the windy shade, out-shines
BolueH blire.
The weary helmsman sees the sign, her own
betrothed is he;
He filings aside the singing brine, and bears
the helm alec,
And clearing through the driving foam the
ship obeys her wheel,
While on the reef the breakers comb ten fathoms
from her keel.
Ring loud, o Christmas bells, ring loud! the
morning splendor wakes,
And through the rifted mass of cloud, the am
Der glory breaks;
The sunlight ripples through the town, the
sea-birds wing their way
Where, with sails furled, and anchor down,
ship rides in the bay.
oh, love is stronger far than death, the souls
of men are his;
Gloom fades before his fragrant breath, grief
dies beneath his kiss;
Who dares for him will deeply drain the wine
within his wells,
The maiden's heart has lost itspain, ring loud,
o Christmas bellsl
THOMAS s. COLLIER