Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3760, 15 January 1881, Page 1

Select Poetry.

LOST INTHE STOBM. The Stoby told ' m the Vernacular by the Host. by bosb hab'jtwiok thobpb. « Walk in, walk right in, you're welcome | Whew! how the wind whistles about; Take a chair close to the fire, sir; It's a bad sort of night to be out.. You saw our light through the darkness And thought you would come? That ia light. Somehow my heart's warmer and softer On ev'ry such blustrin 1 night. " Here, t<ke a good drink from the bottle; 'Twill warm you. You wont ? Why not ? You look like you're needin' o' Bomethin', And this is the best I've got. Well, wife, just you get out some victual!, And make a strong cup of tea; And while she's getting 'em ready* You'll take a good smoke with me ? " That's right, it seems kind o' friendly And brotherly like, I thinkBy th'way, stranger,'tisn't often That a man refuses feo drink! But just as you like. Hear the wind, fir, A tearin' like all possessed, As though all the demons o' darkness Were troubled and couldn't rest. " You seem sort o f pale like and nervous, Your walk was too much, I think; Come to look, you're white as a ghost, sir, Seems to me you'd better drink. Well, well I won't urge you, but really— What's that you're sayin'?—this night With its storms makes you think of another, And the mem'ry saddens you quite ? "It must ha 1 been soniethin' dreadful To make you so tremble, I think; You dOA't $ay> you lost wifa and baby, And all through the demon o' drink ? . I own I thought it was queer like, For 'most ev'ry one drinks, you know, And I couldn't see why the tearin' O' the storm should trouble you so. "Mayhap if you tell me the story, 'Twould ease up your mind a bit. 'Twas just such a night as this one— 'Taint likely I'll ever forgit— That our blessing came, and somehow When the wind and storm are abroad, mhere's a queer kiud o' feelin' A sort o' thanksgiving to God. " I don't take much stock io preacher, Can't say I believe in a hell; Love GodP Why bless you, sir, sometimes My thoughts are too precious to tell, When the long day's work is over, And I pit by my fire at night — • What's that you're eayin' P Oh surely I couldn't a' heard you right. " I was'nt more'n halfway listenin'— I's thinking o' Dolly you see. Did you say that your wife went somewhert t And you dropped in after tea f That she went home kind o' early— But they urgea you to stay a spell, —■ You told her you'd bring the baby, And see 'twas bundled up well. " At last the wine you'd been drinkin' Had somehow got into your head ; The wind and the storm were dreadful When you started for home you saidf See here, stranger,'twasn't near Alta, Just five years ago to-night t. I'm thinkin o' that place always, So I couldn't ha'heard you right. II It was ? And the baby you held it And staggered on through the snow, Your brain growin' drowsy and dizzy; And that is the last you know Of that nights and the storm, till some one Found you there crazy, and wild, And carried you home ; but surely Now, didn't they find the child ? "No ? Well, I might 'a known it, From the first somethin' told me 'twaa so. You say some wild beast had got it. There were tracks all about in the snow. Stranger, see here, if a fellow ; A poor sort o' fellow you see, Found a* purse of gold that its owner Thought he had loßb in the sea. "And then, he should meet with fhe owner, Do you think it would be a sin . Just to keep it ? when he who lost Thought never to see it agin ? You do f Well, go on with your story, Your wife ? Might 'a known she went wild And told you not to come nigh her Agin till you brought back her child. " Five years, sad hearted and lonely, Five years you've ben wand'rin' about. Ah, well! to me they've ben happy ; Yes, wife, go bring Dolly out. I see my' way clear to duty. When Bhe's right here on my knee; Her white arms clingin' about mo, I'm a little faint hearted, you see. " Come here, little Dolly, my baby, Give daddy one more kiss, and then I'm a better man than without her I could ever boped to 'a' ben. Now here is my story—don't cry, wife, It's tough, but it's right, you know. That nigbt, sir, ridin' from Alt a, I was curain' the wind and the snow. " When my hor39 stumbled light over some* thing, And when I got off to see, 'Twus a dead man, leastways I thought 10, And a child that, smiled at me. I unbuttoned my co:it and Kid it In here away from the etorra, And somehow, from that very minnit, My heart's ben Boft-like and warm. "We wero coroin' weat, so we kept it: 'Twasn't ours, and we might a' known We'd Eomo day get punished for keepia' The gold that wasn't our own : And while you were tellia' your story The Devil kept whisperin' to me ' Dou't tell him 5 he never will know it; .He thinks the child dead, you eoe.' " But I just had to—that baby, With her 'cute ways, has changed me quite t Once I didn't care v copper, sir, If a thing were wrong or right, But now—well, hero is your baby j Her loss cured you of your sin. Lost in tbe storm, the storm drove you Bight here to find her agio."

The East Sussex News states tbat Government has secured, four acres of land adjoining Lewes Civil Prison for tbs purpose of its enlargement.