The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-08-07
DROUGHT.

This was dream
The hot winds on my fevered face,
Breathed like the spirit Of that rainless place
All round the laden air pressed down,
Like dry steam DER vale aud town;
Dry was the field, the lake, the stream.
The last faint spring-the Red Drought roigncd
supreme.
The crops were blasted and the grain was dead
The matted meadows cracked beneath the tread
The sapless trees, unnourisht d, sere and brown,
Ratified their burned leaves and cast them down
The winds threw clouds of whirling dust IN high,
From off the hills red crest and swept II by
As though the earth rebelled against the SKY.
And down through all, the brazen sun rays poured
Unceasing as the vengeance Of tie Lord.
The languid populace came trooping to the plain
Some laughed all cursed, some foolish, all insane,
Save one who stood aloOf and prayed for runi
Strong in the clty's m1rket place he stood,
While surged Ground hin both the eVii ana the
good,
Some revercut gazed, some Knocked, bat o'cr
the noise
Rose clear the faithful accents of his voice.
All day his supplication rose TO tod,
But still no rain to wet the useless sod
All night he called unto the heavens wide
And failed, and thrsttng. on the morn he ded;
And in their weakness, all now mourhed INN
dead:
Some sought to bury him, but others said
That ii God saw his grey corpse lying there
II lie might recall the bnrden OF his prayer.
So there they left him aud the soft dust came
And gently spread its mantle Ger his frame.
Wildly they sought for water; in the ground,
A mighty hole they dug, but uothing found.
And one, more vigorous than the others, led
His thirsiing comrades down q rivers bed,
Searching for pools, aud one at length he found,
Beneath mighty rock dark stripe wound
Far under, and tar in he tUilng craw'ed,
Unchecked by lcuthsOme things and uuappalled,
Stranglmg a serpent by his stJne bruised side
And reached sliny pool and drank and died
DAYS wandered into weeks that brought no rain.
The birds flew Voiceless DER the blasted plain,
The beasts were dead and half the people slain.
And those who lived had fled to caves away,
Moved in the night and cursed the coming day,
Like threatened showers Of flame, the deep glare
OF the red stars hung DER them In the air.
A mighty fire had swept the helpless town,
And burned ils beauty and its splendordown,
They all had seen it and like vacant momeS
Had listless gnzed upon their blazing homes
And round the fields and up the mountains high
The spreading flame had seemed to scOrch the
sky
The wind had died, it's spectre ruslled by,
Like splits Of the dead who late had perished
there;
The Red Drought lay like death upon the air,
Round. in a silent crowd, the popuace
Subdued and meek, gazed in each others face
When last they spoke their voices chOked aud
thin
lOld dim remembered laleS OF Nhdl ndu bccul
OF how, hundred years before, they oft had
drank,
And hoped to once again, and hoping sank;
And so some lived. until one nj sht there blew
A thread of humid dir the whole vale through.
II seemed as though the gates of joy on hiSb,
We're open thrown to grant the mercy OF the SKY
With one accord they crawled into the air.
And upward gazed with lilmy eyes to where
thin cloud in the moons niut light,
Lay like q spirit resting on the night;
Slowly it spread till yelling that dread space,
Which long had stretched above them like the
place
Where God had fashioned all their woe, tlelI
pain,
1t filed, aud gently fell the blessed rain.
This was my dream.
II 7. G., ?ND.