Newspaper Page Text
266
Written for Burke's Weekly.
The Decision of the Fairy Queen.
skies vrcre of the tend’rest blue,
if liA Warm and soft and bright,
(aJO Reflecting summer moonbeam’s hue
■'wo azuro
And giant trees long shadows threw,
< '-5Cy Refreshing to the sight;
>£✓ Flowers around in beauty grew,
With varying colors bright.
’Twas the autumnal festival of their Queen,
When she gathered her subjects far and v> ide.
From splendid gardens, from the village green,
Where the violet sought her head to hide ;
From many an obscure woodland scene—
From sunny banks by the river s side
From spots where man has never been—
Came many a beauty in her pride.
The palace of Flora, the Queen of the Flowers,
Was brilliant with fairy light;
Rich perfume floated through her bowers,
Making sweet the ajr of night,
And fell in melting tender showers
On the fay Queen’s subjects bright,
Who with merry feet now chase the hours
Through the starry summer night.
Fair Flora sat on her gorgeous throne,
The palm of beauty to bestow
On her who the fairest among them shone.
“ I will not give,” she said, “ oh no,
To brilliant grace and beauty alone ;
“ You,” to the Violet, “ are meek and low;
“\ r ou,” to the Lily, “have in purity grown,
And the Woodbine is true in joy or woe.
“ The graceful Pink is tall and fair,
And a loving heart hath she.
The Snowdrop, too, is worth our care,
But she is too cold for me.
The Holvhock loves the sun’s hot glare—
She is too bold and free;
The Bay is the emblem of constancy rare —
But a softer flower for me.
“The Red Rose, alas, is proud and vain,
And the Larkspur cares for none:
The White Rose’s cheek no blushes stain—
Flattery she does not shun;
But the Pink Moss Rose, aye, shrinks in pain
From the gaze of an admiring one.
To Modesty, then, the palm I fain
Would give, and say, ’tis justly won.
Atlanta, Ga. Margaret.
♦♦♦
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
MAROONER’S ISLAND ;
OR,
Dr. Gordon in Search of His Children.
BY REV. F . II . GOULDING,
Atithor of “ The Young Mnroonera
CHAPTER XXI.
M ARC IIIN G —lt AIN AMB U SII —I) ETOU R, HI
DING THE TRAIL —CONCEALED ENCAMP
MENT —WILY SCOUT.
rvß Cawf'* was near ly midday when,
wind and tide both failing,
the company landed on a
smooth, hard beach, con
wGmH ' vineed, after a long and
J laborious tug through the water,
LB that the raft must be abandoned
and the passage home attempted
* by land. They arrived very slow
ly at this conclusion, both on account of
their ignorance of the necessary route,
and of what they had reason to believe
concerning the unsettled state of the
country.
BURKE’S WEEKLY".
Ear as the eye could reach along the
coast, the way was open and easy upon a
level beach, but in the dim distance was
a blue streak in the horizon, a little off
shore, indicating one or more islands,
and they knew that in such cases the
margin of the coast was apt to be inoic
or less marshy and broken by creeks, it
not by rivers. Yet what else could they
do? It was useless to stay where they
were, and it was possible that the hostil
ity they had experienced was confined to
a very few —at least this was Tomkins’
opinion, for which he could give no better
reason than his favorite one that he ‘•felt
it in his bones.”
With this hope they prepared them
selves for travel, by putting up each one
five days rations, dividing among them
selves the cooking utensils, and other ne
cessary things, and concealing in a large
hollow log such articles as were too valu
able to throw away, and too cumbrous to
carry. They then broke up their raft,
turned its parts adrift, to leuve as few
signs of themselves as possible for the
prying eyes of the savages, and then took
up their line of march, Tomkins in the
lead, Wheeler in the rear, and Hr. Gordon
(by compliment) in the middle. At the
same time, a scout was kept one or two
hundred yards in advance, with orders to
reconnoitre every suspicious looking place
and to report by concerted signals the
appearance of danger.
Their march, during the afternoon, was
accomplished without the least interrup
tion ; and. about sunset, having reached
a spot upon the bluff where was a semi
circular wall of sand thrown up by the
wind, encompassed by ground free from
all coverts beyond the range of ordinary
rifle shot, they determined to complete
the breastwork thus half-made to their
hand by nature, and make that their
camping-place for the night. A fallen
tree in the edge of the forest supplied
them with the few dried sticks they need
ed for the small fire they kindled in a
screened place under the bluff, and a
thicket of palmettoes and myrtles near
by furnished the materials for a shelter.
This last they built with care, being warn
ed by Magruder’s never-failing token that
rain might be expected that night; and
it was well that they acted upon the
hint, for ere midnight there commenced
a small cold drizzle, which continued far
into the next day.
The discomfort of the morning that
dawned late upon them, as cloudy morn
ings always do, was more than compen
sated by reflecting that the cold rain
would probably keep most of the I ndians
at home, that its steady fall would inter-
pose a veil between them and all observ
ers a quarter of a mile distant, and that
the dampness would materiallyinterfere
with the use of the flint and steel gu n
such as the Indians then had. Encoura
ging themselves, therefore, with these im
portant advantages for a secret march,
they pushed forward as fast and far as
possible upon their uncomfortable way,
keeping ready for defence at a moment’s
w aiming.
A drizzling rain upon the coast usually
ceases with the turn of the day or of the
tide; and so they found, for by 3 o’clock
in the afternoon the sun began to make
itself known in both light and heat.
Their success in travel so far had been
very cheering, and several expressed the
hope that their annoyers had been left
far behind, when the scout was seen to
descend hastily from the bluff and wave
his cap as a b/ken to halt. He reported
three armed Indians, apparently in am
bush, half a mile ahead. He said that he
had fortunately discovered them, by
means of his spy glass, from behind a
cover of bushes, where he himself had
watched them unobserved; that he had
attentively regarded their motions for
several minutes, and was confident they
were in concealment watching for some
thing or somebody to pass along the
beach.
‘ r Tlow lies the coast beyond them?"
| Tomkins asked.
| £ - So far as I could see, it bends sharply
i to the west for a little way, then trends
i northward,” replied the scout.
“ Then we will give our friends ahead
of us the go-by,” said the Sergeant. ‘Ye
will make a circuit through the woods,
and leave them where they are, to watch
for us until they are ready to go home.
The sluggish tide was still rising. The
greater part of the beach was so nrm
with shell and sand as scarcely to recede
an imprint of their feet, and their line of
march had been near the water’s edge,
in order that their trail might be soon
obliterated by the coming tide. I
| company was now marched hack to a
| place where the shell extended paith up
i the bluff. Here they left the immediate
| coast, covering with sand and heibago
their tracks from the water to the top of
the bluff, then making a wide detour
around the supposed ambush, they cuim
; to the beach at a place beyond sight, an*
| once more resumed their journey.
When the sun was nearly an hour high,
| Tomkins ordered a halt, preparatory to
! encampment. He had already gone ahead
! and looked out the ground. It was anu
| a thick growth of oak and other saph'ig*)
' so densely packed with leaves and bay-