Part 6 (1/2)

”Wise Thing, Mortal Thing, yet my half-soul fears thee!

Take the pipe and go thy ways,--quick now, for the sun Reels across the hot west and stumbles dazzled to the sea.

Take the pipe, and oh-one kiss! then run, run, run! run!”

Silence on the mountain. Lonely stands the high cairn, All the leaves a-s.h.i.+vering, all the stones dead-gray.

O thou cold small pipe, which way is fled that Satyr's bairn?

I am lost and all alone, and down drops the day.

I was on the mountain, wandering, wandering There I got this Pipe o' dreams. Strange, when I blow, Something deep as human love starts a-crying, troubling.

Is it only sky-music, earth-music low?

FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS

THE MIRAGE

ACROSS the Bay are low-lying cliffs, Where stand fishermen's cottages: I can barely distinguish them with the naked eye.

But to-day the cliffs are lifted, escarpt, Perpendicular, mysterious, inaccessible, And those sordid dwellings have become The magnificent fortified castles of Sea-kings.

NATHAN HASKELL DOLE

THE ROAD BEYOND THE TOWN

A ROAD goes up a pleasant hill, And a little house looks down: Ah! but I see the roadway still And the day I left the town.

The day I left my father's home, It's many a year ago, And a heart and hope were brave to roam the long, long road I know.

The long, long road by hill and plain, It's tired the heart might be:

But hope stayed bright in sun or rain, And a Voice that called to me.

A Voice that called me over the hill And out of the little town: Ah! but I see the roadway still.

And the good house looking down.

The house that spake me never a No!

As I started brave away, But said with a blessing, Go!

And followed me every day.

It followed me down the road of years, For a father's heart is true, And joy is sweet in a mother's tears For the deeds her child may do.

The poor little deeds, all powerless For the Kingdom of G.o.d would be,

Save in His mercy will He bless The road that goes with me:

The road that left a pleasant hill, Where a little house looks down: Ah! but I bless the roadway still, And the land beyond the town.

MICHAEL EARLS, S.J.