The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1894-11-24

For hours we Heated on the moonlit sea,
ClrcIlng or lacking, or yet list!essly
Moving with that unseen ever-motion
mat gives to all things under heaven life.
No word was spoke; but in that solemn hour
Ihere came to him one great mastery
Which crowns a mighty struggle with re-
solve;
inspires and betters; nobler makes; while
IN silence vowed truer friend to be.
Then deeper silence followed.
1t were, which DER the water pleadingIy
Crept through the pauseS OF the pusing air,
Anu Iainter, fainter grew like drownIn cry,
was hushed. No sound OF summer nights
sweet breath;
Nor Whispered mutinies of Tapping sails;
NOR teaZlng rlppleS tapping tendeTly-
men sudden darkness like an icy pail
Flung its damp folds about us, shutting out
1he stars, The beacon and the faint tar shore.
Then, night ana silence! Ana vast sea
That shrank and quivered from the coming
storm.
. that mad passion of the elements!
still can see those Spumy waves that rose
As II 70 pierce the startled clouds. and swift
returning, writhed in bai1led hideousness
Aere, there, ana all about Us, giant forms
WIN massive crests ana trailing plumes,
hurting
Their mighty spears against the savage sky;
NOW tossing Us like tiny Heck OF spray;
Now driving our frdil smell within u chasm
w hose kissing eddtes spun ii ike a top.
Then lifting us with awful surge, rising
Like some huge monster, fam ishiug,
10 gulp us down, and madiy rush upon
The sleeping city to destroy thu Iunu
Miles, miles from that dear shore! Miles
miles from hope!
hurried, tossed ana beaten; struggling for the
An, God that is so precious when the soul
LOOKS oer the years ungalnered, cen unsown,
1nJo lEaI mystic, undehneu beyond.
An oar tossed like feather heavenward;
Another, lifted lightning like and flung
WITH some keen aim against the head of him
W no was my friend aud whose true hand l
grasped;
Beating the light from out his tender ewes,
crushing In might from out his manly
Now only the dead, voiceless thing Death
claimed,
But which cIut,hed and held a, sure as
death;
Fighting for its keeping with that wondrcus
Power bequeathed by God and bounaless
And drited, drifted. far and ar away
beyond the awful terror OF the deep,
10 some sweet summer-land OF heavenly
peace.
Well, were you ever dead?
was, and knew
The awful agony of waking from
\ nameleSS, pulseleSs, yet ecs attic rest.
l felt the mighty throes OF that God power,
The soul Sing and beating for its strange,
NY StSFIOuS Liberty OF human lie
les, was dead; drowned. Past all earthly
helpn'
heard the soft voice of some woman say;
And felt tender, velvet hand pass DER
My forehead, where a thousand fiery bolts
Played lightning-iike, a thought less for her
touch;
And then the peaceful, hIssful trance again,
Followed by life and death and pain and
peace.
never knew the double woe of that dark
hour
But as woke to consciousness and strength.
And saw the Sisters fitting by
III summer sun and shade that kissed and
cooled
Their little shore-side hospital, it grew
Upon me till would have surely died,
Dad not grasped the swaying, tinkling beads
OF one sweet Sister meeker than the rest,
whose horror OF their breaking kept her near;
And who with listening ear aud furtIve glance
In trembling whispers told me all the tale;
How, following our course, my lost friends
With true love wakened, startled daring all,
Fled like q wild thing down tnat fateful shore;
Calling and pleading out across the waves;
Fright'ning the stragglers from the distant
town;
While sleepy fishers, watching their webbed
nets,
With superstitious fear fed to their huts
AND how, when from calm, soft as the face
OF sleeping baby on its mothers breast
The treacherous deep rose madly up and
drove
Us cruelty against their shore; he, cold
Aud dead; |, still as he, but holding him.
she rushed upon them like some wild, fierce
From out the dreadful night. and clutched his
poor
Dead form, folding it to her painting breast:
kissing the calm white fac ana peaceful eyes;
Weaving her jeweled fingers through his hair;
Drawing the pulseless arm around her, as
Ii Love could make the silent dead careSs;
And in her frenzy waillng floods of woe
AS might have flowed from that disciples
soul
W no, in repentant bitterness and shame.
Passed out from Pontius Pilates halls and
Wept;
And that their pleading was of no avail
TO part her from the lfelesS form which she
Increasingly fOndIed murmuring words
Or broken, incoherent conStancy
Which made their steeled hearts ache and
With promises and all-forgiVen lies
They won the body from the broken life
That ever since, Il helpless, hopeless thing,
Had wandered liStlesSly about the grounds,
or softly, stealthily along the shore,
With such a look of wondering inquiry
And tender, piteous longing in her eyes
As smote the hearts of all who saw, and gives
The place unto this day Il nameleSS fear.
The waters murm'ring dreamful lulIabys;
The soft blue sky so very far away;
The emerald seas of green that lid the schools
And tided on In undulating waves;
The ghostly sails, slow gliding out and in;
The piers, the fishers huts, the bare-Iegged
Watching their seines and prattling with their
babies;
The bathers in their gaily coored suits:
The cleaning shore that reached unto the
town:
The air. the sky, the land, the sea and all
The matchlesS magic of day i'll June;
WoVe i'll this boating theologian's tale
y wondrouS seeming of realty.
That, true, or true in part, or yet if but
The pretty fancy of an idle hour,
Still lifts the Wearied face OF Use and Gain
" here it may feast on sun-iands thrilled by
song.
He WILL LIVE ON.