So that our foe we saw

Laugh as he hailed us.

"And as to catch the gale
Round veered the flapping sail,
Death! was the helmsman's hail
Death without quarter!

Midships, with iron keel,

Struck we her ribs of steel;

Down her black hulk did reel
Through the black water!

"As, with his wings aslant,
Sails the fierce cormorant,
Seeking some rocky haunt
With his prey laden,
So toward the open main,
Beating to sea again

Through the wild hurricane,

Bore I the maiden.

"Three weeks we westward bore, And when the storm was o'er, Cloud-like we saw the shore

Stretching to leeward. There for my lady's bower

Built I the lofty tower,

Which, to this very hour,

Stands looking seaward.

"There lived we many years. Time dried the maiden's tears;

She had forgot her fears,

She was a mother.

Death closed her mild blue eyes.

Under that tower she lies;

Ne'er shall the sun arise

On such another!

"Still grew my bosom then,
Still as a stagnant fen.
Hateful to me were men,

The sunlight hateful.

In the vast forest here,
Clad in my warlike gear,
Fell I upon my spear,

Oh, death was grateful!

"Thus, seamed with many scars,
Bursting these prison bars,
Up to its native stars

My soul ascended.

There from the flowing bowl

Deep drinks the warrior's soul.

SKOAL! to the Northland! SKOAL!"
Thus the tale ended.

THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW

OMEWHAT back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country seat.

Across its antique portico,

Tall poplar trees their shadows throw,

And from its station in the hall,

And seems to say at each chamber door, —

Through days of sorrow and of mirth, Through days of death and days of birth, Through every swift vicissitude

Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood, As if, like God, it all things saw,

It calmly repeats those words of awe, "Forever never!

Never forever!"

In that mansion used to be

Free-hearted Hospitality;

His great fires up the chimney roared;

The stranger feasted at his board;