And their masts, with all their rigging, And the hulk dilated and vanished, And the people who saw this marvel Each said unto his friend, That this was the mould of their vessel, And the pastor of the village HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. THE FORSAKEN MERMAN. COME, dear children, let us away! Down and away below. Now my brothers call from the bay; Now the wild white horses play, Champ and chaff and toss in the spray. This way, this way. Call her once before you go. Call once yet, Children's voices should be dear Surely she will come again. "Mother dear, we cannot stay," Come, dear children, come away down. One last look at the white-walled town, She will not come, though you call all day. Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay; Through the surf and through the swell, The far-off sound of a silver bell? Where the spent lights quiver and gleam; 59 Where the sea-snakes coil and twine, When did music come this way? Children dear, was it yesterday On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, She combed its bright hair and she tended it well, She sighed, she looked up through the clear green sea; In the little gray church on the shore to-day. And I lose my poor soul, merman, here with thee." Children dear, were we long alone? "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan; Long prayers," I said, “in the world they say. Come," I said, and we rose through the surf in the bay. We went up the beach in the sandy down Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-walled town, THE FORSAKEN MERMAN. 61 Through the narrow-paved streets where all was still, To the little gray church on the windy hill. From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers, But we stood without in the cold blowing airs, We climbed on the graves, on the stones worn with rains, And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded She sat by the pillar; we saw her clear; But ah! she gave me never a look, For her eyes were sealed to the holy book. "Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door," Come away, children, call no more, Come away, come down, call no more. Down, down, down, Down to the depths of the sea; She sits at her wheel in the humming town, Singing most joyfully. Hark what she sings: "O joy, O joy, For the humming street, and the child with its toy, For the wheel where I spun, And the blessed light of the sun." And so she sings her fill, Singing most joyfully, Till the shuttle falls from her hand, And the whizzing wheel stands still. She steals to the window and looks at the sand; For the cold strange eyes of a little mermaiden, Come away, away, children, A pavement of pearl. Singing, "Here came a mortal, But faithless was she, And alone dwell for ever The kings of the sea." But children, at midnight, |