Thoughts, Moods and Ideals: Crimes of Leisure | Page 8

me.
THE CHICKIEBIDS.
The chickiebids are in their nest
Overhead,--
Dimpled shapes of rosy rest
Curled a-bed.
Night has sung her spell, and thrown
Her dark net round
Their heads; their pearly ears have grown
Deaf to all other sound.
O of me how you are part,
Babies mine!
Your hearts are children of my heart.
The inner sign
Of my eyes lurks in your eyes,
And your soul,
That so brims with Paradise,

Stirs what wonders roll
Unsuspected in myself,
Who had thought
Life half death, till childhood's elf--
Sign of angels men shall be--
Came and taught
A youth eterne
within futurity.
THE CAUGHNAWAGA BEADWORK SELLER.
Kanawâki--"By the Rapid,"--
Low the sunset midst thee lies;
And
from the wild Reservation
Evening's breeze begins to rise.
Faint the
Kônoronkwa chorus
Drifts across the current strong;
Spirit-like the
parish steeple
Stands thy ancient walls among.
Kanawâki--"By the Rapid,"--
How the sun amidst thee burns!

Village of the Praying Nation,
Thy dark child to thee returns.
All
day through the pale-face city,
Silent, selling beaded wares,
I have
wandered with my basket,
Lone, excepting for their stares!
They are white men; we are Indians;
What a gulf their stares proclaim!

They are mounting; we are dying;
All our heritage they claim.

We are dying, dwindling, dying,
Strait and smaller grows our bound;

They are mounting up to heaven
And are pressing all around.
Thou art ours,--little remnant,
Ours through countless thousand
years--
Part of the old Indian world,
Thy breath from far the Indian
cheers.
Back to thee, O Kanawâki!
Let the rapids dash between

Indian homes and white men's manners--
Kanawâki and Lachine!
O my dear!--O Knife-and-Arrows!
Thou art bronzed, thy limbs are
lithe;
How I laugh as through the crosse-game,
Slipst thou like red
elder withe.
Thou art none of these pale-faces!
When with thee I'll
happy feel,
For thou art the Mohawk warrior
From thy scalp-lock to
thy heel.

Sweet the Kônoronkwa chorus
Floats across the current strong;

Clear behold the parish steeple
Rise the ancient walls among.
Speed
us deftly, noiseless paddle:
In my shawl my bosom burns!

Kanawâki--"By the Rapid,"--
Thine own child to thee returns.
MONTREAL.
Reign on, majestic Ville Marie!
Spread wide thine ample robes of
state;
The heralds cry that thou art great,
And proud are thy young
sons of thee.
Mistress of half a continent,
Thou risest from thy
girlhood's rest;
We see thee conscious heave thy breast
And feel thy
rank and thy descent.
Sprung of the saint and chevalier!
And with the Scarlet Tunic wed!

Mount Royal's crown upon thy head,
And--past thy footstool--broad
and clear
St. Lawrence sweeping to the sea;
Reign on, majestic
Ville Marie!
ALL HAIL TO A NIGHT.
All hail to a night when the stars stand bright
Like gold dust in the
sky;
With a crisp track long, and an old time song,
And the old time
company.
Cho.--All hail to a night when the Northern Light
A welcome to us waves,
Then the snowshoer goes o'er the ice and the
snows, And the frosty tempest braves.
The snowshoer's tent is the firmament;
His breath the rush of the
breeze.
Earth's loveliest sprite, the frost queen at night,
Lures him
silvery through the trees.
Yes, the snowshoer's queen is winter serene,
We meet her in the
glade.
Dark-blue-eyed, a fair, pale bride,
In her jewelled veil
arrayed.

Let us up then and toast to the uttermost
Fair winter! we knights of
the shoe,
And in circle again join hearts with the men
That of old
time toasted her too.
THE PIONEERS.
All you who on your acres broad,
Know nature in its charms,
With
pictured dale and fruitful sod,
And herds on verdant farms,

Remember those who fought the trees
And early hardships braved,

And so for us of all degrees
All from the forest saved.
And you who stroll in leisured ease
Along your city squares,
Thank
those who there have fought the trees,
And howling wolves and bears.

They met the proud woods in the face,
Those gloomy shades and
stern;
Withstood and conquered, and your race
Supplants the pine
and fern.
Where'er we look, their work is there;
Now land and men are free:

On every side the view grows fair,
And perfect yet shall be.
The
credit's theirs, who all day fought
The stubborn giant hosts:
We
have but built on what they wrought;
Theirs were the honor-posts.
Though plain their lives and rude their dress,
No common men were
they;
Some came for scorn of slavishness
That ruled lands far away;

And some came here for conscience' sake,
For Empire and the
King;
And some for Love a home to make,
Their dear ones here to
bring.
First staunch men left, for Britain's name,
The South's prosperity;

And Highland clans from Scotland came--
Their sires had aye been
free;
And England oft her legions gave
To found a race of pluck,

And ever came the poor and brave
And took the axe and struck.
Each hewed, and saw a dream-like home!--
Hewed on--a settlement!

Struck hard--through mists the spire and dome

The distant rim

indent!
So honored be they midst your ease,
And give them well
their due,
Honor to those who fought the trees
And made a land for
you!
CANADIAN FAITH.
I.
In the name of many martyrs
Who have died to save their country,

Poured their fresh blood bravely for it,
And our soil thus consecrated;

In the name of Brock the peerless,
In the name of Spartan Dollard,

Wolfe and Montcalm--world's and ours--
The high spirit