And Advocate of humble life, I now Will force upon his notice; undeterred By the example of his own pure course, And that respect and deference which a soul May fairly claim, by niggard age enriched In what it values most-the love of God
And his frail creature Man ;-but ye shall hear. I talk-and ye are standing in the sun
Towards the Cottage ;-homely was the spot; And, to my feeling, ere we reached the door, Had almost a forbidding nakedness;
Less fair, I grant, even painfully less fair, Than it appeared when from the Valley's brink
We had looked down upon it. All within, As left by that departed company,
Was silent; and the solitary clock
Ticked, as I thought, with melancholy sound.Following our Guide we clomb the cottage stairs And reached a small apartment dark and low, Which was no sooner entered than our Host
Said gaily, "This is my domain, my cell,
My hermitage, my cabin, what you will.- I love it better than a snail his house.
But now Ye shall be feasted with our best." So, with more ardour than an unripe girl Left one day mistress of her mother's stores, He went about his hospitable task.
My eyes were busy, and my thoughts no less, And pleased I looked upon my grey-haired Friend As if to thank him; he returned that look, Cheered plainly, and yet serious. What a wreck We had around us! scattered was the floor,
And, in like sort, chair, window-seat, and shelf, With books, maps, fossils, withered plants and flowers, And tufts of mountain moss; and here and there
Lay, intermixed with these, mechanic tools,
And scraps of paper,―some I could perceive Scribbled with verse: a broken angling-rod And shattered telescope, together linked By cobwebs, stood within a dusty nook ; And instruments of music, some half-made, Some in disgrace, hung dangling from the walls. -But speedily the promise was fulfilled,
A feast before us, and a courteous Host
Inviting us in glee to sit and eat.
A napkin, white as foam of that rough brook
By which it had been bleached, o'erspread the board; And was itself half-covered with a load
Of dainties,-oaten bread, curds, cheese, and cream, And cakes of butter curiously embossed,
Butter that had imbibed a golden tinge,
A hue like that of yellow meadow flowers Reflected faintly in a silent pool.
Nor lacked, for more delight on that warm day, Our Table, small parade of garden fruits,
And whortle-berries from the mountain-sides.
The Child, who long ere this had stilled his sobs, Was now a help to his late Comforter,
And moved a willing Page, as he was bid, Ministering to our need.
While at our pastoral banquet thus we sate Fronting the window of that little Cell,
I could not ever and anon forbear
To glance an upward look on two huge Peaks, That from some other Vale peered into this.
"Those lusty Twins on which your eyes are cast,"
Exclaimed our Host, "if here you dwelt, would be Your prized Companions.-Many are the notes Which in his tuneful course the wind draws forth From rocks, woods, caverns, heaths, and dashing shores; And well those lofty Brethren bear their part In the wild concert-chiefly when the storm Rides high; then all the upper air they fill With roaring sound, that ceases not to flow, Like smoke, along the level of the blast In mighty current; theirs, too, is the song Of stream and headlong flood that seldom fails ; And, in the grim and breathless hour of noon, Methinks that I have heard them echo back The thunder's greeting :-nor have Nature's laws Left them ungifted with a power to yield Music of finer frame; a harmony,
So do I call it, though it be the hand
Of silence, though there be no voice;-the clouds, The mist, the shadows, light of golden suns, Motions of moonlight, all come thither—touch, And have an answer-thither come, and shape A language not unwelcome to sick hearts And idle spirits :-there the sun himself
At the calm close of summer's longest day
Rests his substantial Orb ;-between those heights And on the top of either pinnacle,
More keenly than elsewhere in night's blue vault, Sparkle the Stars as of their station proud. Thoughts are not busier in the mind of man Than the mute Agents stirring there :—alone Here do I sit and watch.”
The Wanderer heard him speaking thus, and said, "Now for the Tale with which you threatened us!" "In truth the threat escaped me unawares
And was forgotten. Let this challenge stand For my excuse, if what I shall relate
Tire your attention.-Outcast and cut off
As we seem here, and must have seemed to you When ye looked down upon us from the crag, Islanders of a stormy Mountain sea,
We are not so ;-perpetually we touch Upon the vulgar ordinance of the world, And he, whom this our Cottage hath to-day Relinquished, was dependant for his bread Upon the laws of public charity.
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