Memories of Canada and Scotland, Speeches and Verses | Page 9

upon a peak dark-lifted
O'er the snows and glaciers
drear?
His the darts divine, whose breaking
Thrice hath some
disaster sent,
Shafts that killed and then returning,
Kept his armoury
unspent."
"Give us of these arrows. Bring him!"
Cried the maidens.
"Nay," they said;
"Come with us and share our hunting
Ere the
autumn leaves are shed."
VII.
Answered they: "In painted lodges
Berries we have dried and meat;

Come again! e'er comes the winter,
Let us hear your horses' feet."

And they sprang into their saddles,
Swept, white-splashing, through a
stream
Red and saffron hued, the pageant
Crossed the blue
translucent gleam.
Then unwilling, as they vanished,
"Star-Child"
slow to camp returned;
Told the council of the Blackfeet
All the
marvels he had learned;
Dressed him in his chief's apparel,
Rode to
where, within the glen,
Lay the trail that led him onward
To the
town, unknown of men.
VIII.
From each Moya thronged the dwellers:
"Hath the chief the arrows
sent?"
"I am Chief; behold me; trust me.
Lead me to your ruler's
tent."
"He hath not the shafts enchanted;
Thus unarmed came never
chief!"
Bent a thousand bows around him:
"Back or die, impostor,
thief!"
Angry, yet afraid to anger,
Lest he lose those
"Laughing-Eyes,"
He, obeying, vowed to conquer;
Scorning to
make vain replies,

Went; and weary seemed the journey!
All along
the yellow plain
Red as rose-leaves in the grasses
Flushed his dusky
cheeks with pain.
IX.
Grave, in silent circles seated
'Neath their Moya's smoke-tanned cone,


Round the fire his chieftains heard him,
Holding each a pipe's red
stone.
Pausing long, they gave their counsel,
Different from their
wont; for here
All the young men spoke for kindness,
All the old
men were severe.
But the Braves rode forth at morning,
Half the
magic darts they bore;
Pledge so precious of their friendship
None
had thought to give before!
To the huntress nation welcome,

Waking song in every tent,
Where the hours were passed in feasting

And the days to love were lent!
X.
Thus the maidens were the victors,
For to them the warriors came:

"Laughing-Eyes" but loved the "Star-Child"
When his shafts her own
became.
Ah! but where is man or woman
Who may boast of
triumph long?
Nought abides, and mighty nations
Cannot ever more
be strong.
So each huntress found a master,
Yielding to her heart's
new birth,
And no more along the prairie
Beat her steed the
sounding earth.
Yearly yet the Blackfeet women
Meet and dance
and sing the day
When through love they won, and, winning,

Freedom passed with love away!
SAN GABRIEL, ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
Grey-cowled monk, whose faith so earnest
Guides these Indians'
childlike hearts,
As their hands to toil thou turnest,
Teaching them
the Builder's arts,
Speak thy thought! as now they gather
Round the
white walls on the plain,
Rearing them for God the Father,
And the
glory of New Spain.
"Thou, St. Gabriel, knowest only
Why thy holy bells I raise,
To no
turret proud and lonely,
There to sound the hours of praise;--

Why I
keep them close beside me,
Framed within the church's walls,
Here
where heathen lands shall hide me
Until death to judgment calls."
Then St Gabriel in high heaven
Told the saints this mortal's lot,
As

the Angelus at even
Rose to day that dieth not;
And from out the
nightly wonder
Of the darkened world would float,
Mingling with
the near sea's thunder,
Yonder belfry's golden note.
"Two there were, whose loves were blighted
By the Spanish pride
abhorred,
And their vows and wealth they plighted
To the Missions
of the Lord.
For his church these bells she gave him,
When within
their glowing mould,
She had cast what were her treasures,
--All
her ornaments of gold.
"So do these, that to his seeming
Were but good as touched by her,

Ring to seek for love redeeming
All who sorrow, all who err.
Yes,
though human love be ever
Heard upon the throbbing air,
This shall
make his life's endeavour
Stronger through a woman's prayer.
"God is not a Lord requiring
Sacrifice of memories dear,
And their
love in life untiring
To His life hath brought then near.
Thus his
wish to have beside him
That which seems her voice, is good:

Lovingly the Lord hath tried him,
And his heart hath understood."
NIAGARA
A ceaseless, awful, falling sea, whose sound
Shakes earth and air, and
whose resistless stroke
Shoots high the volleying foam like cannon
smoke!
How dread and beautiful the floods, when, crowned
By
moonbeams on their rushing ridge, they bound
Into the darkness and
the veiling spray;
Or, jewel-hued and rainbow-dyed, when day

Lights the pale torture of the gulf profound!
So poured the avenging
streams upon the world
When swung the ark upon the deluge wave,

And, o'er each precipice in grandeur hurled,
The endless torrents
gave mankind a grave.
God's voice is mighty, on the water loud,

Here, as of old, in thunder, glory, cloud!
ON CHIEF MOUNTAIN

A GREAT ROCK ON THE AMERICAN NORTH-WEST
FRONTIER.
Among white peaks a rock, hewn altar-wise,
Marks the long frontier
of our mighty lands.
Apart its dark tremendous sculpture stands,

Too steep for snow, and square against the skies.
In other shape its
buttressed masses rise
When seen from north or south; but eastward
set,
God carved it where two sovereignties are met,
An altar to His
peace, before men's eyes.
Of old there Indian mystics, fasting, prayed;

And from its base to distant shores the streams
Take sands of gold,
to be at last inlaid
Where ocean's floor in