Ballads of Bravery. Various

      A sailor lad of years fourteen

      Had chanced, as by the waters thrown,

      On four that made sad cry and moan

      For parents they had lost between

      The wreck and shore, or haply missed.

      Cheerly and kind their cheeks he kissed,

      And folded each in other’s arm.

      Upon a sloping mound of moss

      He dragged a heavy sail across,

      Close-pinned with bowlders, rough yet warm;

      And packing it with mosses tight,

      Kept steadfast watch the livelong night,

      Nor dared depart, lest e’er again

      Was found this treasure he had hid,

      Some sudden treacherous gust had slid

      Beneath that rugged counterpane.

      He knew not name or face of one.

      He saved them. It was nobly done.

      Day dawned at last. The storm had lulled;

      And these were happy, sleeping yet.

      A few fresh hands of moss he pulled,

      Then traced with trembling steps the track

      Of many footprints deeply set;

      And pressing forward, early met

      These children’s parents hasting back,

      And filled their hearts with boundless joy,

      As with blanched lips and chattering teeth

      He told them of his night’s employ;

      Feigned, too, he was not much distressed,

      Although his dying heart, beneath

      His icy-frozen shirt and vest,

      Beat faint. They went; and o’er his eyes

      A gathering film beclouded light;

      And music murmured in his brain,

      Such respite sang from toil and strain

      That all his senses, wearied quite,

      Were lapped to slumber, lulling pain;

      Whilst soothing visions seemed to rise,

      That brought him scenes of other times,

      With cherub faces, beaming bright,

      Of many children, and the rhymes

      His mother taught him on her knee,

      In happy days of infancy.

      Then gentlest forms, with rustling wings,

      Were wafting him a world of ease

      Beneath those downy canopies,

      Wherewith they shut out angry skies;

      And they with winning beckonings —

      Who looked so sweet and saintly wise —

      His buoyant spirit drew afar

      From creaking timbers, shivering sails,

      And ships that strain in autumn gales,

      And snow-mixed rains, and sleeting hails,

      And wind and waves at endless war.

      Oh! who will e’er forget the day,

      The bitter tears, the voiceless prayer,

      The thoughts of grief we could not say,

      The shallow graves within the bay,

      The fifteen dear ones buried there,

      The grown, the young, who, side by side,

      Without or coffin, shroud, or priest,

      Were laid; and him we mourned not least, —

      The boy that had so bravely died!