These rumors of free labor and free soil Might never meet me more. Better to be Door-keeper at the White House, than to dwell Amidst these Yankee tents, that, whitening, show On the green prairie like a fleet becalmed. Methinks I hear a voice come up the river From those far bayous, where the alligators Mount guard around the camping filibusters: "Shake off the dust of Kansas. Turn to Cuba (That golden orange just about to fall, 80 Watch thy increase of sugar-cane and THE BAREFOOT BOY Blessings on thee, little man, Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace; Prince thou art,-the grown-up man Let the million-dollared ride! For, eschewing books and tasks, Nature answers all he asks; Hand in hand with her he walks, Face to face with her he talks, Part and parcel of her joy,Blessings on the barefoot boy! Oh for boyhood's time of June, Crowding years in one brief moon, When all things I heard or saw, Me, their master, waited for. I was rich in flowers and trees, Humming-birds and honey-bees; For my sport the squirrel played, Plied the snouted mole his spade; For my taste the blackberry cone Purpled over hedge and stone; Laughed the brook for my delight ΙΟ 20 30 40 50 Through the day and through the night, Oh for festal dainties spread, I was monarch: pomp and joy Cheerily, then, my little man, Shall the cool wind kiss the heat: Happy if they sink not in Quick and treacherous sands of sin. Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy, Ere it passes, barefoot boy! ARISEN AT LAST 1 I said I stood upon thy grave, 60 70 80 90 100 1855? My Mother State, when last the moon Of blossoms clomb the skies of June. 1 On the passage of the bill to protect the rights and liberties of the people of the State against the Fugitive Slave Act. (Author's Note.) But in thine eye a power to smite Southward the baffled robber's track Henceforth, within thy sacred gates, His first low howl shall downward draw Not mindless of thy trade and gain, So shalt thou clothe with life the hope, The vision of a Christian man, In virtue, as in stature great Embodied in a Christian State. And thou, amidst thy sisterhood 21 30 Their woes and weakness to our Father bear, Wherever fruits of Christian love are found In holy lives, to me is holy ground. 1856. SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE Of all the rides since the birth of time, Or one-eyed Calender's horse of brass, By the women of Marblehead! Body of turkey, head of owl, 10 "Hear me, neighbors!" at last he cried,"What to me is this noisy ride? What is the shame that clothes the skin 80 To the nameless horror that lives within? Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck, And hear a cry from a reeling deck! Hate me and curse me,-I only dread The hand of God and the face of the dead!" Said old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart By the women of Marblehead! Then the wife of the skipper lost at sea Said, "God has touched him! why should we!" 90 Said an old wife mourning her only son, "Cut the rogue's tether and let him run!" So with soft relentings and rude excuse, Half scorn, half pity, they cut him loose, And gave him a cloak to hide him in, And left him alone with his shame and sin. Poor Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, Tarred and feathered and carried in a |