They did not talk about the sin, They spoke about those little graves And things of long ago. And then the daughter raised her eyes and asked in tender tone, "Why did you keep your door unbarred when you were all alone?" "My child," the widow said, and smiled A smile of love and pain, "I kept it so lest you should come And turn away again! I've waited for you all the while-a mother's love is true; Yet this is but a shadowy type of His who died for you!" THE DIVER.-SCHILLER. "Oh, where is the knight or the squire so bold, I cast into the whirlpool a goblet of gold, Shall have for his guerdon that gift of his king.” He spoke, and the cup from the terrible steep, I ask ye again-to the deep below?" And the knights and the squires that gathered around, And all as before heard in silence the king— Till a youth, with an aspect unfearing but gentle, 'Mid the tremulous squires, stepped out from the ring, Unbuckling his girdle and doffing his mantle; * One of the two rocks, Scylla and Charybdis, described by Homer as lying near together, between Italy and Sicily; both formidable to ships which had to pass between them. One contained an immense fig tree, under which dwelt Charybdis, who thrice every day swallowed down the waters of the sea, and thrice threw them up again. And the murmuring crowd, as they parted asunder, As he strode to the marge of the summit, and gave Casts roaringly up the Charybdis again; And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars, And at last there lay open the desolate realm! Through the breakers that whitened the waste of the swell, Dark-dark yawned a cleft in the midst of the whelm, The path to the heart of that fathomless hell. Round and round whirled the waves-deep and deeper still driven, Like a gorge through the mountainous main thunder riven, The youth gave his trust to his Maker! Before That path through the riven abyss closed again- O'er the surface grim silence lay dark and profound, “Gallant youth-noble heart - fare-thee-well, fare-theo well!" And still ever deepening that wail as of woe, If thou should'st in those waters thy diadem fling, Oh! many a ship, to that breast grappled fast, Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless grave, Again, crashed together the keel and the mast, To be seen, tossed aloft in the glee of the wave. And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars, What gleams on the darkness so swanlike and white? And he breathéd deep, and he breathed long, And he greeted the heavenly light of the day. And safe from the whirlpool and free from the grave, " And the king from her maidens has beckoned his daughter She pours to the boy the bright wine which they bring,-And thus spake the diver-" Long life to the king! "Happy they whom the rose-hues of daylight rejoice, The air and the sky that to mortals are given! May the horror below nevermore find a voice— Nor man stretch too far the wide mercy of Heaven! Nevermore-nevermore may he lift from the mirror, The veil which is woven with NIGHT and with TERROR! "Quick brightening like lightning-it tore me along Down, down, till the gush of a torrent at play In the rocks of its wilderness caught me--and strong As the wings of an eagle it whirled me away. Vain, vain were my struggles--the circle had won me; Round and round in its dance the wild element spun me. "And I called on my God, and my God heard my prayer, In the strength of my need, in the gasp of my breathAnd showed me a crag that rose up from the lair, And I clung to it, trembling-and baffled the death! And, safe in the perils around me, behold On the spikes of the coral the goblet of gold. KKK* Below, at the foot of that precipice drear, Spread the gloomy, and purple, and pathless obscure! A silence of horror that slept on the ear, That the eye more appalled might the horror endure! Salamander-snake-dragon-vast reptiles that dwell In the deep--coiled about the grim jaws of their hell. "Dark crawled-glided dark the unspeakable swarms, Clumped together in masses, misshapen and vast; Here clung and here bristled the fashionless forms— Here the dark moving bulk of the hammer-fish passed; And with teeth grinning white, and a menacing motion, Went the terrible shark-the hyena of ocean. "There I hung, and the awe gathered icily o'er me, So far from the earth where man's help there was none! The one human thing, with the goblins before meAlone-in a loneness so ghastly-ALONE! Fathom-deep from man's eye in the speechless profound, With the death of the main and the monsters around. "Methought, as I gazed through the darkness, that now A hundred-limbed creature caught sight of its prey, And darted-O God! from the far-flaming bough Of the coral, I swept on the horrible way; And it seized me, the wave with its wrath and its roar, On the youth gazed the monarch, and marveled—quoth he, "Bold diver, the goblet I promised is thine, And this ring will I give, a fresh guerdon to thee,Never jewels more precious shone up from the mine,If thou'lt bring me fresh tidings, and venture again, To say what lies hid in the innermost main!" Then outspake the daughter in tender emotion, "Ah! father, my father, what more can there rest? Enough of this sport with the pitiless ocean He has served thee as none would, thyself hast confest. If nothing can slack thy wild thirst of desire, Be your knights not, at least, put to shame by the squire!" The king seized the goblet-he swung it on high, And whirling, it fell in the roar of the tide; "But bring back that goblet again to my eye, And I'll hold thee the dearest that rides by my side; In his heart as he listened, there leaped the wild joy- On that bloom, on that blush, gazed, delighted, the boy; They hear the loud surges sweep back in their swell; GOOD-NIGHT, PAPA. The words of a blue-eyed child as she kissed her chubby hand and looked down the stairs," Good-night, papa; Jessie see you in the morning." It came to be a settled thing, and every evening, as the mother slipped the white night-gown over the plump shoulders, the little one stopped on the stairs and sang out, “Goodnight, papa," and as the father heard the silvery accents of the child, he came, and taking the cherub in his arms, kissed her tenderly, while the mother's eyes filled, and a swift prayer went up, for, strange to say, this man who loved his child with all the warmth of his great noble nature, had one fault to mar his manliness. From his youth he loved the wine-cup. Genial in spirit, and with a fascination of manner that won him friends, he could not resist when surrounded by his boon companions. Thus his home was darkened, the heart of his wife bruised and bleeding, the future of his child shadowed. Three years had the winsome prattle of the baby crept into the avenues of the father's heart, keeping him closer to his home, but still the fatal cup was in his hand. Alas for frail humanity, insensible to the calls of love! With unutterable tenderness God saw there was no other way; this father was dear to him, the purchase of his Son; he could not see him perish, and, calling a swift messenger, he said, "Speed thee to earth and bring the babe." |