Of antique form, this large for spinning And now, when Luke had reached his wool,
There by the light of this old lamp they
sat,
Father and Son, while far into the night
The Housewife plied her own peculiar
work,
Making the cottage through the silent hours
Murmur as with the sound of summer flies.
This light was famous in its neighborhood,
And was a public symbol of the life
That thrifty Pair had lived. For, as it
chanced,
Less from instinctive tenderness, the same Fond spirit that blindly works in the blood of all
Than that a child, more than all other gifts,
That earth can offer to declining man Brings hope with it, and forward looking thoughts,
And stirrings of inquietude, when they 150
By tendency of nature needs must fail.
Exceeding was the love he bare to him,
His heart and his heart's joy! For often-
times
Old Michael, while he was a babe in arms,
Had done him female service, not alone 155
For pastime and delight, as is the use
Of fathers, but with patient mind enforced
To acts of tenderness; and he had rocked
His cradle as with a woman's gentle hand.
And when by Heaven's good grace the boy grew up
A healthy Lad, and carried in his cheek Two steady roses that were five years old, Then Michael from a winter coppice cut 181 With his own hand a sapling, which he hooped
With iron, making it throughout in all
Due requisites a perfect shepherd's staff,
And gave it to the Boy; wherewith equipt
He as a watchman oftentimes was placed
At gate or gap, to stem or turn the flock;
And, to his office prematurely called,
There stood the urchin, as you will divine,
Something between a hindrance and a help;
And for this course not always, I believe,
Receiving from his Father hire of praise;
Though nought was left undone which
staff or voice,
Or looks, or threatening gestures could perform.
Than half his substance. This unlooked for claim
At the first hearing, for a moment took
More hope out of his life than he supposed
That any old man ever could have lost.
As soon as he had armed himself with
strength
To look his trouble in the face, it seemed
The Shepherd's sole resource to sell at once
A portion of his patrimonial fields.
Such was his first resolve; he thought again,
And his heart failed him. Isabel,' said he, Two evenings after he had heard the news, 'I have been toiling more than seventy years,
And in the open sunshine of God's love 230
Have we all lived; yet if these fields of ours
Should pass into a stranger's hand, I think
That I could not lie quiet in my grave.
Our lot is a hard lot; the sun himself
Has scarcely been more diligent than I; 235
And I have lived to be a fool at last
To my own family. An evil man
That was, and made an evil choice, if he
Were false to us; and if he were not false,
There are ten thousand to whom loss like
this
Had been no sorrow. I forgive him — but
'T were better to be dumb, than to talk thus.
When I began, my purpose was to speak
Of remedies and of a cheerful hope.
Our Luke shall leave us, Isabel; the land
Shall not go from us, and it shall be free;
He shall possess it free as is the wind 247
That passes over it. We have, thou know-
est,
Another kinsman - he will be our friend
In this distress. He is a prosperous man,
Thriving in trade and Luke to him shall
go,
And with his kinsman's help and his own thrift
He quickly will repair this loss, and then He may return to us. If here he stay, What can be done? Where every one is
By Michael's side, she through the last two nights
Heard him, how he was troubled in his sleep:
And when they rose at morning she could
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