220 FUNEREAL SKETCHES. 



We got on board, and the surgeon gave the poor fellow some weak 

 tepid grog. It acted like raagic : he gradually uncoiled himseif^ 

 his voice, from being weak and husky, became comparatively strong 

 and clear. " El hijo — Aqua para mi pedrillo — No le hace para mi 

 — Oh la noche pasado, la noche pasado !" He was told to compose 

 himself, and that his boy would be taken care of. " Dexa me verlo 

 entonces, oh Dios, dexa me verlo" — and he crawled, grovelling on 

 his chest, like a crushed worm across the deck, until he got his head 

 over the port-sill, and looked down into the boat. He there beheld 

 the pale face of his dead son : it was the last object he ever saw. 

 " Ay de mi 1 " he groaned heavily, and dropped his face against the 

 ship's side. He was dead. 



FUNEREAL SKETCHES. 



NO. IX. 

 GOLIATH SLAIN. 



Whereas the sheep-boy Jesse's son, 



A stranger 'midst the band, 

 Saw Israel's champions quail, as one, 



Beneath the giant's hand — 

 It fired his soul with generous wrath 

 To beard the challenger of Gath. 



His brethren's frown was heeded not, 



Their scoff at him — a lad ; 

 In Judah^s cause he staked his lot 



Against the bold and bad : 

 Refused the mail of Judah's king 

 And went with pebbles and a sling. 



The giant came — and fierce and wild 



They heard his heathen laugh. 

 His oath, in scorn, that such fair child 



Should meet him with a staff; 

 But David said, " With thee is pride, 

 "With me the Arm thou hast defied." 



His scrip supplies the ready stone, 



'Tis raised above his head 

 With pliant hand — and hark I a groan 



And Israel's scourge is dead ; 

 His spirit fallen — his menace hushed — 

 His eye-ball glazed — his temple crushed. 



