Seite:Marsh Wolfe of the knoll.djvu/49

Detdiar sidj as efterluket wurden.
53

THE TIDINGS.

  Wipes the thick drops from his hot brow,
  And lifts to Heaven his trembling hands.
  Yet from his lips no sound there fell —
  What words for such a moment meet,
  When the whole heart doth upward swell,
  In one full cloud of incense sweet !
  One backward glance he shrinking cast
  Upon the fearful peril past,*
  Then, turning to the roof of thatch,
  He slowly lifts the simple latch.

  O, grief ! whose heart is then so clean.
  Whose hands in innocence so washed.
  That he thy sacred form hath seen.
  And stood before thee unabashed !
  To thy great altar who dares bring,
  For offering, an unholy thing !

  * When the tide returns suddenly, persons walking on the flats during
the ebb are exposed to be cut off from the islands and drowned. Distress-
ing accidents of this kind are not unfrequent.