THE homely Priest of Ennerdale. It was a July evening; and he sate Upon the long stone seat beneath the eaves Of his old cottage. Upon the stone His wife sat near him, teasing matted wool. Towards the field In which the Parish Chapel stood alone, Girt round with a bare ring of mossy wall, While half an hour went by, the Priest had sent Many a long look of wonder; and at last, Risen from his seat, beside the snow-white ridge Of carded wool which the old man had piled, He laid his implements with gentle care, Each in the other locked; and down the path Which from his cottage to the Church-yard led, "T was one well known to him in former days, A shepherd lad;-who ere his sixteenth year Had left that calling, tempted to entrust His expectations to the fickle winds And perilous waters; with the mariners A fellow-mariner, and so had fared From perils manifold, with some small wealth THE BROTHERS. To his paternal home he is returned, With a determined purpose to resume The life which he lived there; both for the sake Of many darling pleasures, and the love Which to an only Brother he has borne In all his hardships. Towards the Church-yard he had turned aside,- His family were laid, he thence might learn If still his brother lived, or to the file Another grave was added. By this the Priest, who down the field had come, Unseen by Leonard, at the Church-yard gate Stopped short. The Stranger, who had left the grave, PRIEST. Orphans - Such they were Yet not while Walter lived:-for, though their parents Lay buried side by side as now they lie, The old man was a father to the boys, Two fathers in one father. They were such darlings of each other. From their house the school Was distant three short miles-and in the time Of storm and thaw, when every water-course And unbridged stream, such as you may have noticed Crossing our roads at every hundred steps, Was swoln into a noisy rivulet, Would Leonard then, when elder boys perhaps THE BROTHERS. Remained at home, go staggering through the fords LEONARD. It seems, these Brothers have not lived to be A comfort to each other.— PRIEST. That they might Live to such end, is what both old and young Poor Leonard! when we parted, LEONARD. You said his kindred all were in their graves, And that he had one Brother PRIEST. That is but From his youth A fellow-tale of sorrow. James, though not sickly, yet was delicate: And, when his Brother Was gone to sea, and he was left alone, The little colour that he had was soon Stolen from his cheek; he drooped, and pined, and pined. |