PERILS OF THE HUNTERS. 101

 

What a striking and life-like picture
the poet makes of the whole scene.
And then the close of the sad tale. It
used to affect me even to tears as I
read it:

“Tn vain for him the careful wife prepares
The fire fair blazing, and the vestment
| warm ;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their
sire,
With tears of artless innocence. Alas!
Nor wife nor children more shall he behold,
Nor friends nor sacred home. On every

nerve