"Her presence lends its warmth and health To all who come before it. 395 If woman lost us Eden, such 400 As she alone restore it. "For larger life and wiser aims 66 Through her his civic service shows No double consciousness divides 405 "In party's doubtful ways he trusts Her instincts to determine; 410 At the loud polls, the thought of her "He owns her logic of the heart, Supplying, while he doubts and weighs, "He sees with pride her richer thought, 415 And love thus deepened to respect 420 "And if she walks at ease in ways "Still clearer, for her keener sight 425 "And higher, warmed with summer lights, Or winter-crowned and hoary, 430 The ridged horizon lifts for him "He has his own free, bookless lore, "The steady force of will whereby Her flexile grace seems sweeter; 435 The sturdy counterpoise which makes Her woman's life completer: 440 445 "A latent fire of soul which lacks And wit, that, like his native brooks, "How dwarfed against his manliness "How life behind its accidents Stands strong and self-sustaining, The human fact transcending all The losing and the gaining. 450 "And so, in grateful interchange Of teacher and of hearer, Their lives their true distinctness keep "And if the husband or the wife In home's strong light discovers 455 Such slight defaults as failed to meet The blinded eyes of lovers, 460 "Why need we care to ask?. - who dreams Without their thorns of roses, Or wonders that the truest steel The readiest spark discloses? "For still in mutual sufferance lies Love scarce is love that never knows 465"We send the Squire to General Court, He takes his young wife thither; 470 No prouder man election day Rides through the sweet June weather. "He sees with eyes of manly trust All hearts to her inclining; Not less for him his household light That others share its shining." Thus, while my hostess spake, there grew 475 And outlined with a tenderer grace, 480 The sunset smouldered as we drove Sounding the summer night, the stars 485 Until, at last, beneath its bridge, 490 We heard the Bearcamp flowing, If more and more we found the troth 495 And culture's charm and labor's strength In rural homes united, 500 The simple life, the homely hearth, [THIS poem was published in 1875, but it had already appeared in an earlier version in 1860 under the title of The Witch's Daughter, in Home Ballads and other Poems. Mabel Martin is in the same measure as The Witch's Daughter, and many of the verses are the same, but the poet has taken the first draft as a sketch, filled it out, adding verses here and there, altering lines and making an introduction, so that the new version is a third longer than the old. The reader will find it interesting to compare the two poems. The scene is laid on the Merrimack, as Deer Island and Hawkswood near Newburyport intimate. A fruitful comparison might be drawn between the treatment of such subjects by Whittier and by Hawthorne.] 5 PART I. THE RIVER VALLEY. ACROSS the level tableland, And stunted growth of cedar, leads To where you see the dull plain fall Sheer off, steep-slanted, ploughed by all |