116 THE WILD LAUREL. 



With berries glassed in Adirondach fountains, 

 Or cup mist-filled near Niagara's flowing : 



A crimped and dainty cup, whose timid flushing 

 Tinted the creamy hue of lips so shrinking, 



He thought, at first, some sentient thing was blushing, 

 To be thus caught from such a cauldron drinking. 



Plants then had tongues, — if we believe old story, 

 As told by red-men under forest branches, — 



(Who still insist they hear that language hoary, 

 Ere mountain- woods descend in avalanches :*) 



Plants then had tongues, and in their careless tattle, — 

 Each painted creature on its footstalk swaying, 



Beguiled the loitering hunter with their prattle, 

 Secrets of Nature and old Earth betraying. 



And once, they said, when Earth seemed fully freighted 

 With pearly cup, and star, and tufted blossom, 



An Indian youth, with spirit all unmated, 

 On old Ta-ha-wusf flung his weary bosom. 



He knew not, could not comprehend the feeling 



That kept him mute, oppressed with thought unuttered, 



That wild, wild sense of loveliness o'erstealing 



Which urged his pent soul forth on wing unfettered. 



* Forest Avalanches, or " Mountain Slides," as they are called in the language of our north 

 country, are said to be preceded by a strange groaning of the trees. It is most probably, how ■ 

 ever, only the grinding of the loosened ground beneath them. 



t The high peak of the Adirondachs. 



