The wild waves reach their hands for it,
The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,

Above our heads the sullen clouds

Scud black and swift across the sky;
Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds
Stand out the white lighthouses high.
Almost as far as eye can reach
I see the close-reefed vessels fly,
As fast we flit along the beach,
One little sandpiper and I.

I watch him as he skims along,

Uttering his sweet and mournful cry;
He starts not at my fitful song
Nor flash of fluttering drapery.
He has no thought of any wrong,

He scans me with a fearless eye;

Staunch friends are we, well tried and strong,
The little sandpiper and I.

Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night,
When the loosed storm breaks furiously?
My driftwood fire will burn so bright!

To what warm shelter canst thou fly?

I do not fear for thee, though wroth
The tempest rushes through the sky;
For are we not God's children both,
Thou, little sandpiper, and I?

QUESTIONS AND HELPS

1. Tell what you can about the author of this poem, or write a short story of her life. 2. Describe the sandpiper; tell why he is so called and why he likes to run along that part of the beach where the drift is. 3. Think of this poem as a picture. What can you see in the first stanza? 4. Who is gathering driftwood? What is driftwood, and why is she gathering it so quickly? 5. What is meant by the wild waves "reaching their hands" for the driftwood? 6. What is meant by the tide running high?

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7. What can you see in the second stanza? 8. What are 'sullen" clouds? Explain "scud black and swift." 9. What did the lighthouses look like, and what were their "misty shrouds"? 10. Why were the ships close-reefed?

11. What do you see in the third stanza? 12. What is a "fitful" song, and what did the sandpiper do when he heard it? 13. Say "scans me with a fearless eye" in simpler words, and tell whether the sandpiper thought that any wrong would be done to him. 14. What are" staunch friends," and why did the sandpiper seem to be a friend?

15. What is asked in the last stanza? 16. Explain "wroth the tempest rushes through the sky." 17. Why was there no danger that the sandpiper would be drowned or killed? 18. Think of these words "storm," "comrades," "God's children." They will help you to get the feeling of the poem. Who were comrades and why? What is meant by God's children? 19. Memorize the poem.

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Other simple poems by Mrs. Thaxter are "The Wounded Curlew," "Spring," "Wild Geese," "Chanticleer," "Little Gustava," "March," "April," and " Easter Song." She tells about her island home in the book, "Among the Isles of Shoals." Mrs. Wright's Gray Lady and the Birds" has a description of the sandpiper.

Gallant and gay in their doublets gray,
All at a flash like the darting of flame,
Chattering Arabic, African, Indian-

Certain of springtime, the swallows came!

Doublets of gray silk and surcoats of purple,

And ruffs of russet round each little throat,
Wearing such garb they had crossed the waters,
Mariners sailing with never a boat.

doublet (doublět): a close coat.

surcoat (sûr coat): a cloak.

A FOREST FIRE

JOAQUIN MILLER

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[Few men have lived a wilder or more exciting life than Joaquin Miller. He was born in Indiana in 1841, and when nine years old went with his parents to Oregon. That country was then an almost unknown land of mountains 5 and forests, full of bears, elk, and Indians, with only a few white settlers. At thirteen young Miller set out from Oregon, alone, for the gold mines of California. On the he fell in with a company of white men, got into a battle with the Indians, was shot through with an arrow and was 10 almost killed. An old Indian woman who had been captured carried him on her back to a place of safety. When he recovered he went to Mexico to drive cattle, and while returning he was again attacked by Indians, struck down with a club, and left for dead. But friendly Indians took 15 him to one of their camps and cared for him, and he stayed with them until he was strong again.

Then he lived in a mining camp and washed gold out of the sand and dirt by the side of a mountain stream in a deep canyon in northern California. This was a rough life, 20 and he saw many a terrible fight -too terrible to speak of here. He helped to rescue an Indian boy and girl whom some of the miners were about to kill, and afterwards went

with them to their people, where he was welcomed and made much of.

For five years he lived among these Indians, and after a time married the Indian girl whom he had saved and who had grown up to be a beautiful young woman. He helped 5 the tribe to fight their battles against other tribes, sometimes even fighting with them against the whites, for he felt that the Indians had not been treated fairly. His Indian wife was killed as they were trying to escape by crossing a swift river on horseback.

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At another time he fought with the whites against the Indians, when he felt that the Indians were in the wrong. He was for a time an express messenger in Idaho, in the days when robbing stagecoaches was a common thing. Then he edited a newspaper in Oregon, studied and prac- 15 ticed law, and was for five years a county judge.

In 1870 he went to England, published a book of poems, and was received with high honors. Then he spent several years in newspaper work in New York and Washington and at last went West again. He had married a second time, 20 after his return from among the Indians, and he spent his last years quietly with his wife and daughter in Oakland, California, where he died at the age of seventy-one. He wrote many poems, stories, and plays, most of them about wild life in the early days of the West. His finest short 25 poem is "Columbus." When he was a child his father and