104 CONTOOCOOK RIVER.
When frost and storm the rock have reft, To bubble cool in sheltered springs Where the lone red-bird dips his wings, And the tired fox that gains its brink Stoops, safe from hound and horn, to drink. And rills and springs, grown broad and deep, Unite through gorge and glen to sweep In roaring brooks that turn and take The over-floods of pool and lake, Till, to the fields, the hills deliver Contoocook's bright and brimming river!
O have you seen, from Hillsboro town How fast its tide goes hurrying down, With rapids now, and now a leap Past giant boulders, black and steep, Plun ged in mid water, fain to keep Its current from the meadows green? But; flecked with foam, it speeds along; And not the birch trees silvery sheen, Nor the soft lull of whispering pines, Nor hermit thrushes, fluting low, Nor ferns, nor cardinal flowers that glow Where clematis, the fairy, twines, Can stay its course, or still its song ; Ceaseless it flows till, round its bed, The vales of Henniker are spread, Their banks all set with golden grain, Or stately trees whose vistas gleam — A double forest in the stream ; And, winding 'neath tbe pine-crowned hill ■ That overhangs the village plain, By sunny reaches, broad and still, It nears the bridge that spans its tide — The bridge whose arches low and wide It ripples through — and should you lean A moment there, no lovelier scene On England's Wye, or Scotland's Tay, Would charm your gaze, a summer's day.
And on it glides, by grove and glen, Dark woodlands, and the homes of men, With now a ferry, now a mill ; Till, deep and calm, its waters fill The channels round that gem of isles Sacred to captives' woes and wiles, And, gleeful half, half eddying back, Blend with the lordly Merrimack ; And Merrimack whose tide is strong Rolls gently, with its waves along, Monadnock's stream that, coy and fair, Has come, its larger life to share, And, to the sea, doth safe deliver Contoocook's bright and brimming river !
Brooklyn, N. J.
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