236 THE POLISH BOY. "One moment!" shrieked the mother; " one! But leave him free from Russian thrall! Down at the Russian's feet she cast. He stooped to seize the glittering store;- But the brave child is roused at length, His curling lips and crimson cheeks Hath done the work of years for me!" THE POLISH BOY. He drew aside his broidered vest, And there, like slumbering serpent's crest, "Ha! start ye back? Fool! coward! knave! Think ye my noble father's glaive The pearls that on the handle flame No! thus I rend the tyrant's chain, A moment, and the funeral light -Great God, I thank thee! Mother, I 237 238 THE ENCHANTRESS. THE ENCHANTRESS.-T. B. ALDRICH. T'S only in legend and fable The fairies are with us, you know; And yet I have met with a fairy- Like her who talked nothing but pearls. You may laugh, if you like, little Mabel, A marvellous creature! I really Whenever she comes from her castle, Melts, and drops into the stream. The dingy gray moss on the boulder The robin and wren fly to meet her; The roadsides in pastures and meadows, The buttercups growing bold, For her sake light up the shadows With disks of tremulous gold. A YANKEE IN LOVE. Even the withered bough blossoms, Grateful for sunlight and rain, What fairy in all your romances And sings in the birds on the tree? 239 A YANKEE IN LOVE.-BURNETT. NE day Sall fooled me; she heated the poker awful hot, then asked me to stir the fire. I seized hold of it mighty quick to oblige her, and dropped it quicker to oblige myself. Well, after the poker scrape, me and Sall only got on middlin' well for some time, till I made up my mind to pop the question, for I loved her harder every day, and I had an idee she loved me or had a sneaking kindness for me. But how to do the thing up nice and rite pestered me orful. I bought some love books, and read how the fellers git down onter their knees and talk like poets, and how the gals would gently-like fall in love with them. But somehow or other that way didn't kinder suit my notion. I asked mam how she and dad courted, but she said it had been so long she had forgotten all about it. Uncle Jo said mam did all the courting. At last I made up my mind to go it blind, for this thing was farely consumin' my mind; so I goes over to her dad's, and when I got there I sot like a fool, thinkin' how to begin. Sall seed somethin' was troublin' me, so she said, says she, "An't you sick, Peter?" She said this mity soft-like. "Yes! No!" sez I; "that is, I an't zackly well; I thought I'd come over to-night," sez I. I tho't that was a mity purty beginnin'; so I tried agin. "Sall," sez I-and by this time I felt kinder fainty about the stommuck and shaky about the knees-" Sall," sez I. "What?" sez she. "Sall," sez I agin. "What?" sez she. I'll get to it arter a while at this rate, thinks I. "Peter," says she, "there's suthin' troublin' you; 'tis mighty wrong for you to keep it from a body, for an inard sorrer is a consumin' fire." She said this, she did, the sly critter. She knowed what was the matter all the time mighty 240 A YANKEE IN LOVE. well, and was only tryin' to fish it out, but I was so far gone I couldn't see the point. At last I sorter gulped down the big lump a risin' in my throat, and sez I, sez I, "Sall, do you love anybody?" "Well," sez she, "there's dad and mam," and a countin' of her fingers all the time, with her eyes sorter shet like a feller shootin' off a gun, "and there's old Pide (that were their old cow), and I can't think of anybody else just now," sez she. Now, this was orful for a feller ded in love; so arter a while I tried another shute. Sez I, "Sall," sez I, "I'm powerful lonesome at home, and sometimes think if I only had a nice, pretty wife to luv and talk to, move, and have my bein' with, I'd be a tremendous feller." Sez I, “ Sall, do you know any gal would keer for me?" With that she begins, and names over all the gals for five miles around, and never once came nigh naming of herself, and sed I oughter git one of them. This sorter got my dander up, so I hitched my cheer up close to her, and shet my eyes and sed, "Sall, you are the very gal I've been hankering arter for a long time. I love you all over, from the sole of your head to the crown of your foot, and I don't care who nos it, and if you say so we'll be jined together in the holy bonds of hemlock, Epluribusunum, world without end, amen!" sez I; and then I felt like I'd throwed up an alligator, I felt so relieved. With that she fetched a sorter screem, and arter a while sez, sez she, "Peter!" "What, Sally?" sez I. "Yes!" sez she, a hidin' of her face behind her hands. You bet a heap I felt good. must holler, Sall, or I shall bust. jump over a ten-rail fence!" With that I sot rite down by her and clinched the bargain with a kiss. Talk about your blackberry jam; talk about your sugar and merlasses; you wouldn't a got me nigh 'em-they would all a been sour arter that. O these gals! how good and bad, how high and low they make a feller feel! If Sall's daddy hadn't sung out 'twas time all honest folks was a-bed, I'd a sot there two hours longer. You oughter seed me when I got home! I pulled dad out of bed and hugged him! I pulled mam out of bed and hugged her! I pulled aunt Jane out of bed and hugged her! I larfed and hollered, I crowed like a rooster, I danced round there, and I cut up more capers than you ever heerd tell on, till dad thought I was crazy, and got a rope to tie me with. "Dad," sez I," I'm goin' to be married !” "Mar 66 "Glory! glory!" sez I, "I· Hurrah for hooray! I can |