Chambers's poetical reader

THE LITTLE MARINER.

109

My father heard my vow with joy; so in the early May We went on board a merchantman, bound for Honduras Bay.

Right merrily, right merrily, we sailed before the wind, With a briskly heaving sea before, and the landsman's cheer behind.

There was joy for me in every league, delight on every strand,

And I sat for days on the high foretop, on the long look-out for land.

There was joy for me in the nightly watch, on the burning tropic seas,

To mark the waves, like living fires, leap up to the freshening breeze.

Right merrily, right merrily, our gallant ship went free, Until we neared the rocky shoals within the Western sea.

10.

Yet still none thought of danger near, till in the silent night

The helmsman gave the dreadful word of 'Breakers to the right!'

The moment that his voice was heard, was felt the awful

shock;

The ship sprang forward with a bound, and struck upon a rock.

11.

'All hands aloft!' our captain cried; in terror and dismay They threw the cargo overboard, and cut the masts away; 'Twas all in vain, 'twas all in vain; the sea rushed o'er the deck,

And shattered with the beating surf, down went the parting wreck.

12.

The moment that the wreck went down my father seized me fast,

And leaping 'mid the thundering waves, seized on the broken mast:

I know not how he bore me up, my senses seemed to swim,

A shuddering horror chilled my brain, and stiffened every limb.

13.

What next I knew, was how at morn, on a bleak, barren

shore,

Out of a hundred mariners, were living only four.

I looked around, like one who wakes from dreams of fierce alarm,

And round my body still I felt, firm locked, my father's

arm.

14.

And with a rigid, dying grasp, he closely held me fast, Even as he held me when he seized, at midnight, on the mast.

With humble hearts and streaming eyes, down knelt the little band,

Praying Him who had preserved their lives to lend His guiding hand.

15.

And day by day, though burning thirst and pining

hunger came,

His mercy, through our misery, preserved each drooping frame :

And after months of weary woe, sickness, and travel sore, He sent the blessed English ship that took us from that shore.

INSTRUCTION.

16.

111

And now, without a home or friend, I wander far and near, And tell my miserable tale to all who lend an ear.

Thus sitting by your happy hearths, beside your mother's

On happy is the man who hears
Instruction's warning voice,
And who celestial Wisdom makes
His early, only choice.

For she has treasures greater far
Than east or west unfold;
And her rewards more precious are
Than all their stores of gold.

In her right hand she holds to view
A length of happy days;
Riches, with splendid honours joined,
Are what her left displays.
She guides the young with innocence,
In pleasure's paths to tread,
A crown of glory she bestows
Upon the hoary head.

According as her labours rise,

So her rewards increase;

Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.

FLY AWAY, LADYBIRD.

FLY away, Ladybird-fly away-
Away, away, away!

Fly from the wind of the wintry day,

Why do you linger away, away!

The flower and the tree have no home for thee;
The gay and the fair are lonely and bare;
Then fly away, Ladybird, fly away—

Away, away, away!

Fly away, Ladybird-fly away

Away, away, away!

Go with the happy, the glad, and the gay;