72

BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

“ «God stay thee in thine agony, my boy !
I cannot see thee die; I cannot brook
Upon thy brow to look.
And see death settle on my cradle joy.
How have I drunk the light of thy blue eye!
And could I see thee die?

“«7 did not dream of this when thou wast straying,
Like an unbounded gazelle, among the flowers;
Or wiling the soft hours,
By the rich gush of water-sources playing,
Then sinking weary to thy smiling sleep,
So beautiful and deep.

“«Oh no! and when I watch’d by thee the while,
And saw thy bright lip curling in thy dream,
And thought of the dark stream
In my own land of Egypt, the far Nile,
How pray'd I that my father’s land might be
An heritage for thee !

“« And now the grave for its cold breast hath won thee!
And thy white delicate limbs the earth will press;
And oh! my last caress
Must feel thee cold, for a chill hand is on thee.
How can I leave my boy, so pillow’d there
Upon his clustering hair !’

“ She stood beside the well her God had given
To gush in that deep wilderness, and bathed
The forehead of her child until he laugh’d
In his reviving happiness, and lisp’d
His infant thought of gladness at the sight
Of the cool plashing of his mother’s hand.”