THE VALE OF LANHERNE. I#9 



One mother's pride — with tackle that would poise 

 Thrice three such slender weights. How blithe their looks, 

 The agile footstep and the exultant voice 

 Proclaim their cares all banishM with their books, 

 Wanton as one-year colts, and loud as new-fledged rooks. 



Too transitory hours of life's glad mornl 

 Yet youth is but a fairer type of age; 

 To many a care and many a peril born, 

 Full soon we find our bitter heritage; 

 A thousand bright attractive forms engage 

 Our little hearts, and hope as oft deceives : 

 'T is thus we fit us for our changelul stage; 

 Fate from the first a thread of grief inweaves, 

 And life's young rose still blooms with thorns beneath its 

 leaves. 



Nimble yet steady, and with hawk-like eye. 

 Shunning the treacherous shrub, the lads descend 

 From crag to crag, with many a cheering cry, 

 While screaming choughs and deep-voiced billows blend: 

 They leap, they crawl, or by the hands impend. 

 " Now let me down, but make the tackle fast, 

 That rock, I wager, does a nest defend — 

 Hark ? 't was the young one's cry came up the blast, 

 W^e have them now, hurrah ! we have the birds at last." 



The eager stripling, with a flush of hope. 

 Claims as his privilege the adventurous flight. 

 And swings like sailor-boy upon the rope ; 

 Hand under hand his legs embracing tight 

 The swerving cord, he glides, the billows bright 

 Far underneath like huge sea-serpents coil: 

 My brain grows dizzy but to glance the height ; 

 He little recks how fierce the surges boil, 

 But with a shout descends, and takes the half-fledged spoil. 



With answering cheers the twain aloft essay 

 The plunderer with his noisy prize to hale; 

 The rope ascends — the billows watch their prey — 

 God grant those puny muscles may not fail ! 

 His mates the stripling urge, e'en as the gale 

 Sways his light form : with arduous grasp they ply 

 The fatal cord — their strength will yet avail — 

 VOL. VII. — 1836. X 



