The tempest heard and paused—

The wild sea gentler moved

They felt the power of woman's faith
In the word of him she loved.

All night to rope and spar

They clung with strength untired, Till the dark clouds fled before the sun, And the fierce storm expired.

At noon the song of bridal bells
O'er hill and valley ran;
At eve he call'd the maiden his,
"Before the holy man."

They dwelt beside the waters

That bathe yon fallen pine,

And round them grew their sons and daughters, Like wild grapes on the vine.

And years and years flew o'er them,

Like birds with beauty on their wings, And theirs were happy sleigh-ride winters, And long and lovely springs,

Such joys as thrill'd the lips that kiss'd

The wave, rock-cool'd, from Horeb's fountains,

And sorrows, fleeting as the mist

Of morning, spread upon the mountains,

Till, in a good old age,

Their life-breath pass'd away;

Their name is on the churchyard page-
Their story in my lay.

*

*

*

*

*

And let them rest together,

The maid, the boat, the boy,

Why sing of matrimony now,
In this brief hour of joy?

Our time may come, and let it

'Tis enough for us now to know

That our bark will reach West Point ere long, If the breeze keep on to blow.

We have Hudibras and Milton,

Wines, flutes, and a bugle-horn, And a dozen segars are lingering yet Of the thousand of yestermorn.

They have gone, like life's first pleasures,

And faded in smoke away,

And the few that are left are like bosom friends

In the evening of our day.

We are far from the mount of battle,*

Where the wreck first met mine eye,

And now where twin-fortst in the olden time rose, Thro' the Race, like a swift steed, our little bark goes, And our bugle's notes echo through Anthony's Nose, So wrecks and rhymes-good-by.

* Stony Point.

† Forts Clinton and Montgomery.

FINIS.