That 's just the dish she can't abide, Whatever kind o' gout it hae. Hersel' and her annuity. The Bible says the age o' man Threescore and ten, perchance, may be; Explain the incongruity. Alive for her annuity. She 's been embalmed inside and oot She 's sauted to the last degree- Sae caper-like an' crnety. Than her accursed annuity. The water-drop wears out the rock, As this eternal jaud wears me; But not the continuity. GEORGE OUTRAM. The Forging of the Anchor. Comr, see the Dolphin's anchor forged ; 't is at a white heat now: The bellows ceased, the flames decreased; though on the forge's brow The little flames still fitfully play through the sable mound; And fitfully you still may see the grim siniths ranking round, All clad in leathern panoply, their broad hands only bare; Some rest upon their sledges here, some work the windlass there. The windlass strains the tackle-chains, the black mound heaves below, And red and deep a hundred veins burst out at every throe; It rises, roars, rends all outright,-0 Vulcan, what a glow! 'T is blinding white, 't is blasting bright, the high sun shines not so! The high sun sees not, on the earth, such fiery fearful show,The roof-ribs swarth, the candent hearth, the ruddy, lurid row Of smiths that stand, an ardent band, like men before the foe; As, quivering through his fleece of flame, the sailing mon ster slow Sinks on the anvil,—all about the faces fiery grow,“Hurrah!” they shout, “leap out, leap out:” bang, bang, the sledges go; Hurrahl the jetted lightnings are hissing high and low; A hailing fount of fire is struck at every squashing blow; The leathern mail rebounds the hail; the rattling cinders strew The ground around; at every bound the sweltering fount ains flow; And thick and loud the swinking crowd, at every stroke, pant “Hol” Leap out, leap out, my masters; leap out and lay on load I board; The bulwarks down, the rudder gone, the boats stove at the chains, But courage still, brave mariners, the bower still remains, And not an inch to flinch he deigns save when ye pitch sky high, Then moves his head, as though he said, “Fear nothing, here am I!” Swing in your strokes in order, let foot and hand keep time, Your blows make music sweeter far than any steeple's chime! But while you sling your sledges, sing; and let the burden be, The Anchor is the Anvil King, and royal craftsmen we; Strike in, strike in, the sparks begin to dull their rustling red! Our hammers ring with sharper din, our work will soon be sped; Our anchor soon must change his bed of fiery rich array For a hammock at the roaring bows, or an oozy couch of clay; Our anchor soon must change the lay of merry craftsmen here, For the Yeo-heave-o, and the Heave-away, and the się;hing seaman's cheer; When, weighing slow, at eve they go far, far from love and home, And sobbing sweethearts, in a row, wail o'er the ocean foam. In livid and obdurate gloom, he darkens down at last. O trusted and trustworthy guard, if thou hadst life like me, What pleasures would thy toils reward beneath the dees green sea! U deep sea-diver, who might then behold such sights as thou? The hoary monsters' palaces! methinks what joy 't were now To go plumb plunging down amid the assembly of the whales, And feel the churned sea round me boil beneath their scourging tails ! Then deep in tangle-woods to fight the fierce sea unicorn, And send him foiled and bellowing back, for all his ivory horn; To leave the subtle sworder-fish of bony blade forlorn; And for the ghastly-grinning shark, to laugh his jaws to scorn; To leap down on the kraken's back, where 'mid Norwegian isles He lies, a lubber anchorage for sudden shallowed miles, Till snorting, like an under-sea volcano, off' he rolls; Meanwhile to swing, a-butleting the far astonished shoals Of his black-browsing ocean-calves, or haply in a cove Shell-strown, and consecrate of old to some Undine's love, To find the long-haired mermaidens; or, hard by icy lands, To wrestle with the sea-serpent, upon cerulean sands. O broad-armed fisher of the deep, whose sports can equal thine? The Dolphin weighs a thousand tons, that tugs thy cable line; And night by night 't is thy delight, thy glory day by day, Through sable sea and breaker white, the giant game to play. But, shamer of our little sports, forgive the name I gavel A fisher's joy is to destroy—thine office is to save. O lodger in the sea-kings' halls, couldst thou but understand Whose be the white bones by thy side, or who that drip ping band, Slow swaying in the heaving wave, that round abc ut thee bend, With sounds like breakers in a dream, blessing their ancient friendOh, couldst thou know what heroes glide with larger steps round thee, Thine iron side would swell with pride; thou 'dst leap with in the sea! Give honor to their memories who left the pleasant strand, To shed their blood so freely for the love of Fatherland; Who left their chance of quiet age and grassy church-yard grave, So freely, for a restless bed amid the tossing wave. Oh, though our anchor may not be all I have fondly sung, Honor him for their memory whose bones he goes among! SAMUEL FERGUSON. The Bells of Shandon. With deep affection Their magic spells. On this I ponder Sweet Cork, of thee,- |