The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-07
ON THE LITERARY W0RlD.|
hen fell upon NV bleeding heart

And wept as IL her own would Dreak
l could not speak. She wildly spoke
Recalled the hour when first we met,
Deplored the passion love awoke,
Described the joy, the wild regret,
The awful sense of life undone,
My strange desertion-all, o, all
Until / prayed the very sun
Ablaze in heaven to quickly fall
And spread devouring flame apace
And burn the planet out of. space.
Just then they discovered him who had
Teen spared with her standing near and
with greedy ear he
Heard, aghast
With malice, of her bitter past
And laughed in satisfaction. She
Mutely appealed by look to me.
l rose and scourged the beast at prey
Surprised. He crouched and stole away.
Then the confessions made and the two
were wed, not by usual forms, but there
on their knees before God the holy vows
were pledged. But their union was only
for the moment; their paths lay in diff
ferent directions.
Her promise to her Lord had been
To seek the wide worlds darkest spot.
And there through jungle deep and fen
Unknown. enkindle truths pure ray
And teach barbaric lips to pray"
Thus it was that "she begged the sacri-
flee of life together" and her lover nad
it not in his heart to murmur. Soon
che LODI mic inv,
and the lover returned to his native shore
and into this solitude. But even here the
jealous rival for the lady's hand followed
him only to fall before him when the
insult was offered to the sacred name of
her who was far away.
Retiring into another room where "the
tawny Iroquois reposed upon a notified
panther skin they seated themselves by
the ancient fireplace of which the poet
sings with glowing praise:
Know We the spot? 1t is a place
Where youth, by subtle vision held
In castle and in grove may trace
The stored histories of cid
Where young ambitions eye may mark
Its future into glory rise
AS lightly as the English lark
Goes singing to the sunny skies
Where love may view the years go by
In fair procession flower crowned,
Nor think that in some spot will lie
A lovely willow-shaded mound
Where manhood, having cares to vex
The fretted stream of life, may find
A peaceful rest and naught perplex
The silent eddy of the mind
Where grief may brood away its care
And hope bud softly from despair.
Never sacred urn
OF ashes had such charm about it.
Long may the hallowed beacon burn,
For home is not sweet home with
out It."
The hermit seemed lost in the train of
thought started awhile ago and so he sits
in silence. The guest therefore brings
up the pleasant past evoking the smiles
of the host and the wondering gaze of
the maid.
"Boyhoods days
| called from the forgotten past
Once more we hid in hazel shade
Our struggled angling lines to cast,
Sitting with witless jest, afraid
To wake an echo, lest the noise
Should tell some car of truant boys.
Again we crept with stealth feline
Far out upon the beech bough high,
Surprised by sudden landscape fine,
Startled to be so near/the sky,
But venturing still, as boys may do,
To brink of death for bird-eggs blue.
Then under sweeping boughs of green,
With sunrise lances lodged between
The dewy leaves, we first held rein,
And batted at the darkening wood
To dare with iocund challenge vain
The moss troop clan of Robin Hood
After a brief silence. the girl took her
place between the dogs, and this reused
the hermit from his reflections. He would
have his friendly guest know
THE sequel to that story dark
And sad which years ago left me
Watching the white sails of bark
Fade in the twilight on the sea-
And so he proceeded with the old story
"of hapless love and sorrowful DEATH
This Christmas Eve is the anniversary
OF the tragic event to be related. Some
years ago the recluse was called to make
a journey of pressing need to visit the
bedside of his one Indian friend far over
and among chose Titanic rock chains. -
The snow had fallen for days and the eve
of his summons was the widest of the
storm. But he started skyward only to
miss the seldom trod path Meantime the
storm increased, the snow falling faster
and leach tree seemed a mast frozen into
an arctic sea-" Fortunately he gained
the shelter of a cliff. Only mercy's voice
could prompt him to brave such a storm
as this; but the Indiana soul sublime
Had sent me message that deaths hand
Was pointing him toward the land
OF spirits, and he begged that l
Would hasten to the eyrie wild
He called his home, top near high
Grand pinnacle, and take his child,
A small thing motherless, and give
1t room in home and heart to live
/ His was the only step that came
To meet mine through the silent years
| TQVpt her XUp chased WARY game