Page:Pocahontas, and Other Poems.djvu/51

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CONNECTICUT RIVER. 35

Then hale and cheerful to her home repair, When Sol's slant rav renews her evening care, Press the full udder for her children's ineal, Rock the tired babe or wake the tuneful wheel.

See, toward yon dome, where village science dwells, When the church-clock its warning summons tells, What tiny feet the well-known path explore, And gaily gather from each rustic door. The new-weaned child with murmuring tone proceeds, Whom its scarce taller baby-brother leads, Transferred as burdens, that the housewife's care May tend the dairy, or the fleece prepare. Light-hearted group ! who carol wild and high, The daisy cull, or chase the butterfly, Or, by some traveller's wheel aroused from play, The stiff salute, with deep dernureness pay, Bare the curled brow, or stretch the sunburnt hand, The home-taught homage of an artless land. The stranger marks, amid their joyous line, The little baskets whence they hope to dine, And larger books, as if their dexterous art Dealt most nutrition to the noblest part : Long may it be ere luxury teach the sharne To starve the mind, and bloat the unwieldy frame.

Scorn not this lowly race, ye sons of pride, Their joys disparage, nor their hopes deride ; D 2

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