YACHTING DIVERSIONS. 167 



The loggerhead, meanwhile, had not been idle, and occasion- 

 ally added a stanza to complete the literary bill of fare. We 

 give them connectedly: 



Like mountain lake— as smooth and calm — 

 The waves are hushed in dreamy sleep, 



While perfumes float from isles of balm, 

 And mm'muring voices from the deep. 



We float like sea-birds on the tide, 



We tread the deep with muflled keel, 

 Like spirits of the air we glide, 



And something of their rest we feel. 



Like sunset isles in western skies, 



Where viewless spirits joyous flit, 

 Before us lie the coral isles, 



And happy angels, wingless, sit. 



When weary toilers picture heaven, 



Unending rest is their ideal ; 

 That boon to coral isles is given, 



Here soon we learn that heaven is real. 



On some of these excursions we took along Thompson's *' Cas- 

 tle of Indolence," and when the wind was not too strong, it was 

 read aloud and very greatly a2:)preciated. It seemed as if its 

 author must have visited the Bahamas before composing the 

 poem, his pictures so perfectly mirror what one there ever sees 

 and feels. Take, for example, the following: 



" A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 



Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, 

 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 

 Forever flushing 'round a summer sky; 

 There ekes the soft delights that witchingly 

 Instil a wanton softness through the breast." 



