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The Cruise of the Dolphin, Baby Bell and Other Prose and Verse
The Cruise of the Dolphin Baby Bell and Other Prose and Verse Author:Thomas Bailey Aldrich Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: No word was spoken: There stood the Hurons On the dank greensward, With their swart faces Bowed in the twilight. What did they see there ? Only a Lily Kocfced on... more » the azure Breast of the water. Then they turned sadly One to another, Tenderly murmuring, " Miantowona! " Soft as the dew falls Down through the midnight, Cleaving the starlight, Echo repeated, " Miantowona! " FRIAR JEROME'S BEAUTIFUL BOOK A. D. 1200. The Friar Jerome, for some slight sin, Done in his youth, was struck with woe. " When I am dead," quoth Friar Jerome, " Surely, I think my soul will go Shuddering through the darkened spheres, Down to eternal fires below ! I shall not dare from that dread place To lift mine eyes to Jesus' face, Nor Mary's, as she sits adored At the feet of Christ the Lord. Alas ! December's all too brief For me to hope to wipe away The memory of my sinful May! " And Friar Jerome was full of grief That April evening, as he lay On the straw pallet in his cell. He scarcely heard the curfew-bell Calling the brotherhood to prayer; But he arose, for 't was his care Nightly to feed the hungry poor That crowded to the Convent door. His choicest duty it had been : But this one night it weighed him down. " What work for an immortal soul, To feed and clothe some lazy clown ? Is there no action worth my mood, No deed of daring, high and pure, That shall, when I am dead, endure% A well-spring of perpetual good ? " And straight he thought of those great tomes With clamps of gold — the Convent's boast — How they endured, while kings and realms Passed into darkness and were lost; How they had stood from age to age, Clad in their yellow vellum-mail,1 'Gainst which the Paynim's 2 godless rage, The Vandal's 3 fire, could naught avail: 1 Vellum was a usual ...« less