Call her once before you go. In a voice that she will know : "Margaret! Margaret ! Children's voices should be dear "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, L Where the spent lights quiver and gleam; When did music come this way ? Children dear, was it yesterday Once she sat with you and me, On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea. And the youngest sat on her knee. She combed its bright hair, and she tended it well, When down swung the sound of the far-off bell; She sighed, she looked up through the clear green sea She said, "I must go, for my kinsfolk pray In the little green church on the shore to-day. 'Twill be Easter-time in the world, ah me ! 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." 66 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, Through the narrow paved streets where all was still, To the little grey church on the windy hill. prayers, From the church came a murmur of folk at their "Margaret! hist! come quick, we are here. The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan." 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. 66 Hark what she sings, "O joy, O joy, From the humming street, and the child with its toy, From the priest and the bell, and the holy well, From 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, She will start from her slumber The waves roar and whirl, 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, When soft the winds blow, We will gaze from the sand-hills, And then come back, down. Singing, "There dwells a loved one, She left lonely for ever, The kings of the sea." ARNOLD. LVII THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company. |