Filled with children in happy play,
Parted its moorings and drifted clear;
Drifted beyond the reach or call,
Thirteen children they were in all,-
All adrift in the lower bay!

Said a hard-faced skipper, "God help us all!
She will not float till the turning tide!"
Said his wife, "My darling will hear my call,
Whether in sea or heaven she bide!"

And she lifted a quavering voice and high,
Wild and strange as a sea-bird's cry,
Till they shuddered and wondered at her side.

The fog drove down on each laboring crew,

Veiled each from each and the sky and shore; There was not a sound but the breath they drew, And the lap of water and creak of oar.

And they felt the breath of the downs fresh blown

O'er leagues of clover and cold gray stone, But not from the lips that had gone before.

They come no more. But they tell the tale

That, when fogs are thick on the harbor reef, The mackerel-fishers shorten sail;

For the signal they know will bring relief,

For the voices of children, still at play In a phantom-hulk that drifts alway Through channels whose waters never fail.

It is but a foolish shipman's tale,

A theme for a poet's idle page;
But still, when the mists of doubt prevail,
And we lie becalmed by the shores of age,

We hear from the misty troubled shore
The voice of the children gone before,
Drawing the soul to its anchorage!

KING EDWIN'S FEAST.

JOHN W. CHADWICK.

THERE was feasting in the hall
And the beards wagged all.

Oh, the board was heaped with food

And the ale was like a flood;

And 'twas bitter winter weather

When King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes
Were a-feasting thus together.

As the board was heaped with food,
So the hearth was piled with wood,
Ay, with oaken logs a score,

And the flames did leap and roar,

And they cast a ruddy glow

On King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes

As they feasted in a row.

All at once they were aware
Of a flutter in the air,

As a little sparrow came

In between them and the flame,
Then a moment flew around,

While King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes
Wondered whither he was bound.

Then he vanished through the door

And they never saw him more.
But up spoke a noble Thane
As a silence seemed to reign,

And a wonder seemed to fall

On King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes
As they feasted in the hall.

What is all this life of ours
With its graces and its powers?
It is like the bird that came
In between us and the flame,
Stayed a moment in the room

With King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes,
Then was off into the gloom.

So we come out of the night,
Stay a moment in the light
Of a warm and pleasant room,-
Then go forth into the gloom.

Hither somehow, tempest-tost,

O King Edwin, and you, Eldormen and Thanes ; Then, again, in darkness lost.

Then another silence fell;

And the first who broke the spell

Was Paulinius, the Christian, and he said,
Bowing low a reverent head

That was white with many years,

To King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes, And his words were dim with tears:

"Oh, not merely tempest-tossed,

Not again in darkness lost,

Is the little bird that came

In between us and the flame,

For the bird will find his nest.

So King Edwin, and you, Eldormen and Thanes, Be not your heart distressed.

"Not from darkness comes the soul,

Nor shall darkness be its goal.

For that, too, there is a nest
Whither flying it shall rest

Evermore. It must be so."

Said King Edwin and his Eldormen and Thanes, "Would to God that we might know!"

AN ARAB WELCOME.

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.

BECAUSE thou com'st, a tired guest,
Unto my tent, I bid thee rest.
This cruse of oil, this skin of wine,
These tamarinds and dates are thine:
And while thou eatest, Hassan there
Shall bathe the heated nostrils of thy mare.

Allah il Allah! even so

An Arab chieftain treats a foe:

Holds him as one without a fault,

Who breaks his bread and tastes his salt;

And, in fair battle, strikes him dead

With the same pleasure that he gives him bread!

KULLERVO1 AND THE CHEAT-CAKE.

ARRANGED FROM THE "KALEVALA"; THE EPIC OF FINLAND.

JOHN MARTIN CRAWFORD.

THE lad Kullervo

TRANSLATED BY

Laid his luncheon in his basket,
Drove the herd to mountain pastures,
O'er the hills and through the marshes
To their grazings in the woodlands,
Speaking as he careless wandered
"Of the youth am I the poorest,
Hapless lad and full of trouble,
Evil luck to me befallen!

I, alas! must idly wander

O'er the hills and through the valleys
As a watch-dog for the cattle!"

From the woods a bird came flying,
Sang this song to Kullerwoinen :
"Tis the time for forest-dinners,

1 Kullerwoinen was a shepherd boy employed by the wicked wife of Ilmarinen, who gives him a cheat-cake for luncheon.