Whither, " midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last stops of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursueThy solitary way?
Vainly the fowler"s eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.
Seek"st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side?
There is a Power Whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast- The desert and illimitable air-Lone wandering, but not lost.
All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere; Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,Though the dark night is near.
Drawn by John Rowell
"Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest."And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, Soon, o"er thy sheltered nest.
Thou"rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,And shall not soon depart.
He Who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,In the long way that I must tread alone Will lead my steps aright.
W. C. Bryant.
Author.-William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), the first great American poet, known as the "Father of American Poetry." He is chiefly famous for his Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl, The Death of the Flowers, and To the Fringed Gentian.
General Notes.-What is the lesson tonight by the waterfowl? Write an essay on " Birds and Human Beings : what they have in common."LESSON 29
AmyAS lEIgH AND HIS REVENgE
IYes, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished. As the medals struck on the occasion said :- "It came, it saw, and it fled!" And whither? Away and northward, like a herd of frightened deer, past the Orkneys and Shetlands, catching up a few hapless fishermen as guides; past the coast of Norway- there, too. refused water and food : and on northward ever towards the lonely Faroes. and the everlasting dawn which heralds round the Pole the midnight sun.
Their water is failing; the cattle must go overboard; and the wild northern sea echoes to the shrieks of drowning horses. They must homeward at least, somehow, each as best he can. Let them meet again at Cape Finisterre, if indeed they ever meet. Alas for them! For now comes up from the Atlantic gale on gale, and few of that hapless remnant reached the shores of Spain.
And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this while? Amyas is following in their wake.
For, when the Lord High Admiral determined to return,Amyas asked have to follow the Spaniard; and asked. too, of Sir John Hawkins, who happened to be at hand. such ammunition and provision as could be afforded him. promising to repay the same, like an honest man, out of his plunder if he lived, out of his estate if he died; after which, Amyas, calling his men together, reminded them once more of the story of the Rose of Torridge and Don Guzman de Soto, and then asked: " Men of Bideford, will you follow me?"And every soul on board replied that he was willing to follow Sir Amyas Leigh around the world.
There is no need for me to detail every incident of that long and weary chase. How they found the Santa Catharina, attacked her, and had to sheer off, she being rescued by the rest; how, when Medina"s squadron left the crippled ships behind, they were all but taken or sunk by thrusting into the midst of the Spanish fleet to prevent her escaping with Medina; how she was fain to run south, past the Orkneys, and down through the Minch, between Cape Wrath and Lewis; how she was nearly lost on the Isle of Man; how the Spaniard blundered down the coast of Wales, not knowing whither he went; how they were both nearly lost on Holyhead; how they got on a lee shore in Cardigan Bay; how the wind changed, and she got round St. David"s Head; these, and many more moving incidents of this voyage I must pass over, and go on to the end; for it is time that the end should come.
It was now the sixteenth day of the chase. They had seen,the evening before, St. David"s Head, and then the Welsh coast round Milford Haven, looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the inland thunderstorm. In vain they strained their eyes through the darkness to catch, by the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the Spaniard; and, when, a little after midnight, the wind chopped up to the west and blew stiffly till daybreak, they felt sure that they had her safe in the mouth of the Bristol Channel.
Slowly and wearily broke the dawn; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low, dingy cloud, barred and netted and festooned with black-a sign that the storm is only taking breath a while before it bursts again. As the day went on, the breeze died down, and the sea fell to a long, glassy, foam-flecked roll, while overhead brooded the inky sky, and round them the leaden mist shut out alike the shore and the chase.
Amyas paced the sloppy deck, fretting at every moment which lingered between him and his one great revenge. The men sat sulkily about the deck and whistled for a wind; the sails flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled in the long troughs of the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped right and left.
"Take care of those guns. You will have something loose next," growled Amyas. "To have been on his heels sixteen days and not sent this through him yet !" and he shook his sword impatiently.
So the morning wore away without a sign of living thing,not even a passing gull. Was he to lose his prey after all? The thought made him shudder with rage and disappointment. It was intolerable. Anything but that!
The men were now below at dinner.
"Here she is !" thundered Amyas from the deck; and, in an instant, all were scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the rolling of the ship would let them.
