THE SEA-SERPENT. 
31 
cut the line ; — too long they’d delayed, for the 
boat was over, and all that were in it were lost, 
save one who held on to the keel; the snake 
did n’t stop to observe the disaster, for he felt 
in his side the painful steel, and so he clawed on 
for the shore the faster. 
At Nahant the ladies in nice blue dresses were 
bathing, not far from the cove near the house ; 
just where the ocean the shore caresses, the 
belles have come down their tresses to souse. 
Softly the summer sun was playing over the calm 
and waveless sea, softer far were those lovers 
straying under the shaded balcony. Brightly those 
sherry cobblers glisten, the bucks are drinking 
there at the bar ; and soft this song to which they 
listen, sung by a beau on his cc light guitar.” 
i. 
If charmed by thy witchery, loitering, I linger 
Spell-bound, enchanted by beauty and song, 
While Time, floating swiftly, denotes with his finger 
That long hours have fled which have not 
seemed long, — 
