Puffing the birds, as they sat on the spray,
Or the traveller grave on the king's highway.
It was not too nice to bustle the bags

Of the beggar, and flutter his dirty rags.
'Twas so bold that it feared not to play its joke
With the doctor's wig, and the gentleman's cloak.
Through the forest it roared, and cried gayly, “Now,
You sturdy old oaks, I'll make you bow!"

And it made them bow without more ado,

Or it cracked their great branches through and through.
Then it rushed like a monster o'er cottage and farm,
Striking their inmates with sudden alarm ;

And they ran out like bees in a midsummer swarm.
There were dames with their kerchiefs tied over their

caps,

To see if their poultry were free from mishaps;

The turkeys they gobbled, the geese screamed aloud,
And the hens crept to roost in a terrified crowd;

There was rearing of ladders, and logs laying on,

Where the thatch from the roof threatened soon to be

gone.

But the wind had passed on, and had met in a lane With a school-boy, who panted and struggled in vain, For it tossed him, and twirled him, then passed, and he stood

With his hat in a pool, and his shoe in the mud.

WILLIAM HOWITT.

136

THE INCHCAPE ROCK.

THE INCHCAPE ROCK.

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea :
The ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock
The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

The Abbot of Aberbrothok

Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge's swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous rock,
And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothok.

The sun in heaven was shining gay,
All things were joyful on that day;

The sea-birds screamed as they wheeled round,
And there was joyaunce in their sound.

The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck,
And he fixed his eyes on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring,
It made him whistle, it made him sing;
His heart was mirthful to excess,

But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float:
Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat,
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,

And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sank the bell with a gurgling sound,

The bubbles rose and burst around;

Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to

( 138 )

So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky
They cannot see the sun on high ;

The wind hath blown a gale all day, ·
At evening it hath died away..

On the deck the Rover takes his stand;
So dark it is they see no land.

Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

"Canst hear," said one,
"the breakers roar?
For methinks we should be near the shore.”
"Now where we are I cannot tell,

But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell."

They hear no sound; the swell is strong; Though the wind hath fallen they drift along, Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock : — "O Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock!"

66

Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair,
And beat his breast in his despair;
The waves rush in on every side,

And the ship sinks down beneath the tide.

SOUTHEY.