Seite:Marsh Wolfe of the knoll.djvu/71

Detdiar sidj as efterluket wurden.
75

THE RANSOM.

It bears the lover from the maid,
To whom his only vows are given,
And from whose cheek the blood doth fade,
All backward to the full heart driven.
 
O, Poverty, thy rule is stern !
'Tis hard beneath thy frown to live,
And yet from thee thy children learn
The noblest lesson life can give.
The grace most glorious in the eyes
Of God and man — self-sacrifice !
When He, the Holy, came to show
The way our mortal feet should go,
If, one with Him, our souls would be
From torturing self forever free,
Through thy low vale His footsteps led,
On thy cold lap His sacred head
Was wont to find less certain rest
Than beast in lair, or bird in nest.