74
the castaways.
Although it is a bitter trial for me,
For thy good perhaps it yet may be!
Though my heart bids thee stay, I say to thee
May God bless and watch o'er you, when at sea!"
In another instant, and Horace stood alone
By the open window, while his mother's tones
Seemed yet to ring upon his ear,
And down his cheeks, there coursed a tear.
Ah! little did he think those words would rise
When far from home beneath unfriendly skies,
With some lone shipmate on the parting deck
Of the fast sinking and abandoned wreck!—
But a short time, and he stood on the shore,
And heard the sullen ocean's restless roar,
And watched in silence the glittering foam,
That soon alone would be his home!
But a ship was at anchor in the bay,
As graceful she seemed as an ocean fay.
From her sweeping masts to lengthy hull,
She appeared as swift as the wild sea gull,
Light as they were, but lighter far,
Were her slight and tapering set of spars,
And such was the graceful "Amphitrite,"—
She came from the land of the "stars and stripes,"
But by the ever varying chance of war,
Now the English flag at her mast she bore.
For thy good perhaps it yet may be!
Though my heart bids thee stay, I say to thee
May God bless and watch o'er you, when at sea!"
In another instant, and Horace stood alone
By the open window, while his mother's tones
Seemed yet to ring upon his ear,
And down his cheeks, there coursed a tear.
Ah! little did he think those words would rise
When far from home beneath unfriendly skies,
With some lone shipmate on the parting deck
Of the fast sinking and abandoned wreck!—
But a short time, and he stood on the shore,
And heard the sullen ocean's restless roar,
And watched in silence the glittering foam,
That soon alone would be his home!
But a ship was at anchor in the bay,
As graceful she seemed as an ocean fay.
From her sweeping masts to lengthy hull,
She appeared as swift as the wild sea gull,
Light as they were, but lighter far,
Were her slight and tapering set of spars,
And such was the graceful "Amphitrite,"—
She came from the land of the "stars and stripes,"
But by the ever varying chance of war,
Now the English flag at her mast she bore.
