Over her decks the seas will leap,
She must go down into the deep,
And perish mouse and man.

The captain of the Valdemar

Laughed loud with merry heart. "I should like to see this ship," said he;

"I should like to find these Chimneys Three,

That are marked down in the chart.

“I have sailed right over the spot," he said,

"With a good stiff breeze behind, When the sea was blue, and the sky was clear,

You can follow my course by these pinholes here,

And never a rock could find.”

And then he swore a dreadful oath,

He swore by the Kingdoms Three, That, should he meet the Carmilhan, He would run her down, although he ran Right into Eternity!

All this, while passing to and fro,

The cabin-boy had heard;
He lingered at the door to hear,
And drank in all with greedy ear,
And pondered every word.

He was a simple country lad,
But of a roving mind.

"O, it must be like heaven," thought he,

"Those far-off foreign lands to see,

And fortune seek and find!"

But in the fo'castle, when he heard

The mariners blaspheme,

He thought of home, he thought of God, And his mother under the churchyard sod,

And wished it were a dream.

One friend on board that ship had he; 'T was the Klaboterman,

Who saw the Bible in his chest,
And made a sign upon his breast,
All evil things to ban.

III.

THE cabin windows have grown blank As eyeballs of the dead;

No more the glancing sunbeams burn
On the gilt letters of the stern,
But on the figure-head;

On Valdemar Victorious,

Who looketh with disdain To see his image in the tide Dismembered float from side to side, And reunite again.

"It is the wind," those skippers said, It is the wind; it freshens fast, "That swings the vessel so; 'Tis time to say farewell at last, 'Tis time for us to go."

They shook the captain by the hand,

"Goodluck! good luck!" they cried; Each face was like the setting sun, As, broad and red, they one by one Went o'er the vessel's side.

The sun went down, the full moon rose, Serene o'er field and flood;

And all the winding creeks and bays And broad sea-meadows seemed ablaze, The sky was red as blood.

The southwest wind blew fresh and fair,
As fair as wind could be;
Bound for Odessa, o'er the bar,
With all sail set, the Valdemar
Went proudly out to sea.

The lovely moon climbs up the sky
As one who walks in dreams;
A tower of marble in her light,
A wall of black, a wall of white,
The stately vessel seems.

Low down upon the sandy coast

The lights begin to burn; And now, uplifted high in air, They kindle with a fiercer glare.

And now drop far astern.

The dawn appears, the land is gone,
The sea is all around;

Then on each hand low hills of sand
Emerge and form another land;
She steereth through the Sound.

Through Kattegat and Skager-rack
She flitteth like a ghost;
By day and night, by night and day,
She bounds, she flies upon her way
Along the English coast.

black;

The clouds were everywhere; There was a feeling of suspense In nature, a mysterious sense Of terror in the air.

And all on board the Valdemar
Was still as still could be ;
Save when the dismal ship-bell tolled,
As ever and anon she rolled,

And lurched into the sea.

The captain up and down the deck
Went striding to and fro;
Now watched the compass at the wheel,
Now lifted up his hand to feel

Which way the wind might blow.
And now he looked up at the sails,
And now upon the deep;

In every fibre of his frame
He felt the storm before it came,
He had no thought of sleep.

Eight bells and suddenly abaft,
With a great rush of rain,
Making the ocean white with spume,
In darkness like the day of doom,
On came the hurricane.

There rose up from the sea,
As from a foundered ship of stone,
Three bare and splintered masts alone:
They were the Chimneys Three.

And onward dashed the Valdemar
And leaped into the dark;

A denser mist, a colder blast,
A little shudder, and she had passed
Right through the Phantom Bark.

green,

Drive his new Flying Stage-coach, four in hand,

Down the long lane, and out into the land,

And knew that he was far upon the way To Ipswich and to Boston on the Bay!

Just then the meditations of the Earl
Were interrupted by a little girl,
Barefooted, ragged, with neglected hair,
Eyes full of laughter, neck and shoulders
bare,

A thin slip of a girl, like a new moon,
Sure to be rounded into beauty soon,
A creature men would worship and adore,
Though now in mean habiliments she

bore

A pail of water, dripping, through the street,

And bathing, as she went, her naked feet.

It was a pretty picture, full of grace, The slender form, the delicate, thin face;