FOR CHILDREN. 959

THE INCHCAPE ROCK;!
OR, THE ROVER’S FATE.

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,

The ship was as still as she could be ;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel as steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves floated over the Inchcape Rock ;
So little they rose, so little they fell,

They did not move the Inchcape bell.

The good old abbot of Aberbrothock

Had floated that bell on the Inchcape Rock ;
On the waves of the storm it floated and swung,
And louder and louder its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge’s swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;

And then they knew the perilous rock,

And blessed the priest of Aberbrothock.

The sun in heaven was shining gay,

All things were joyful on that day ; .
The sea-birds screamed, as they wheeled around,
And there was pleasure in the sound.

The float of the Inchcape bell was seen,
A darker speck on the ocean green ;

Sir Ralph the rover* walked the deck,
And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.

1 The Inchcape Rock is a dangerous sunken rock oft
the coast of Forfarshire, Scotland, on which the Bell-rock
Light-house now stands. = Rover—wanderer, pirate,