THE RED RIVER VOYAGEUR. His dress is woven of palmy strands, And he holds a palm-leaf scroll in his hands, Traced with the Prophet's wise commands! The turban folded about his head Was daintily wrought of the palm-leaf braid, And the fan that cools him of palm was made. Of threads of palm was the carpet spun Whereon he kneels when the day is done, And the foreheads of Islam are bowed as one! To him the palm is a gift divine, Wherein all uses of man combine, House, and raiment, and food, and wine ! And, in the hour of his great release, His need of the palm shall only cease With the shroud wherein he lieth in peace. "Allah il Allah!" he sings his psalm, On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm; "Thanks to Allah who gives the palm!" As through the open minster floats The song of breeze and bird! Not less the wonder of the sky 301 That daisies bloom below; The brook sings on, though loud and high The cloudy organs blow! And, if the tender ear be jarred To-day be every fault forgiven We take, with thanks, the gold of And leave the earth's alloy. Be ours his music as of spring, His sweetness as of flowers, The songs the bard himself might sing In holier ears than ours. Sweet airs of love and home, the hum LINES, READ AT THE BOSTON CELEBRATION OF THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ROBERT BURNS, 25TH IST MO., 1859. How sweetly come the holy psalms From saints and martyrs down. The waving of triumphal palms Above the thorny crown! Yet, jarring not the heavenly notes, THE RED RIVER VOYAGEUR. Our and in the river is winding The links of its long, red chain Only, at times, a smoke-wreath Drearily blows the north-wind And with one foot on the water, Is it the clang of wild-geese? Is it the Indian's yell, That lends to the voice of the northwind The tones of a far-off bell? The voyageur smiles as he listens The bells of the Roman Mission, To the hunter on the plain! Even so in our mortal journey The bitter north-winds blow, And thus upon life's Red River Our hearts, as oarsmen, row. And when the Angel of Shadow Rests his feet on wave and shore, And our eyes grow dim with watching And our hearts faint at the oar, Happy is he who heareth The signal of his release KENOZA LAKE. As Adam did in Paradise, Lake of the pickerel !-let no more But sweet Kenoza, from thy shore Let Indian ghosts, if such there be And thanks that from our daily need The joy of simple faith is born; That he who smites the summer weed, May trust thee for the autumn corn. Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; Who sows a field, or trains a flower, Or plants a tree, is more than all. For he who blesses most is blest; An added beauty to the earth. And, soon or late, to all that sow, The time of harvest shall be given; The flower shall bloom, the fruit shall grow, If not on earth, at last in heaven! THE PREACHER. ITS windows flashing to the sky, Over the woods and meadow-lands Flung a slant glory far away. The steeples with their veering vanes! Awhile my friend with rapid search O'erran the landscape. "Yonder spire Over gray roofs, a shaft of fire; What is it, pray?"-"The Whitefield Church! Walled about by its basement stones, There rest the marvellous prophet's bones." Then as our homeward way we walked, With tongues of Pentecostal flame. range. The land lies open and warm in the sun, Anvils clamor and mill-wheels run, Flocks on the hillsides, herds on the plain, The wilderness gladdened with fruit and grain! But the living faith of the settlers old Rebukes the sin of the world no more. But as a pilgrim's wayside tent, Solid and steadfast seems to be, But fresh and green from the rotting THE PREACHER. 305 As the barley-winnower, holding with pain Aloft in waiting his chaff and grain, Felt the answer of prayer, at last, As the muezzin calls from the minaret stair. Through ceiléd chambers of secret sin Sudden and strong the light shone in; A guilty sense of his neighbor's needs Startled the man of title-deeds; The trembling hand of the worldling shook The dust of years from the Holy Book; And the psalms of David, forgotten long, Took the place of the scoffer's song. The impulse spread like the outward |