And lay till now neglected in the grass.
Though weak his step and cautious, he appeared
To travel without pain, and I beheld,
With an astonishment but ill-suppressed,
His ghostly figure moving at my side;
Nor could I, while we journeyed thus, forbear
To turn from present hardships to the past,
And speak of war, battle, and pestilence,
Sprinkling this talk with questions, better spared.
On what he might himself have seen or felt
He all the while was in demeanor calm.
Concise in answer: solemn and sublime
He might have seen, but that in all he said
There was a strange half-absence, as of one
Knowing too well the importance of his theme
But feeling it no longer. Our discourse
Soon ended, and together on we passed
In silence through a wood gloomy and still.
Up-turning, then, along an open field,
We reached a cottage. At the door I knocked.
And earnestly to charitable care
Commended him as a poor friendless man,
Belated and by sickness overcome.
Assured that now the traveler would repose
In comfort, I entreated that henceforth
He would not linger in the public ways,
But ask for timely furtherance and help
Such as his state required. At this reproof,
With the same ghastly mildness in his look,
He said, "My trust is in the God of Heaven,
And in the eye of him who passes me!"
The cottage door was speedily unbarred,
And now the soldier touched his hat once more
With his lean hand, and in a faltering voice,
Whose tone bespake reviving interests
Till then unfelt, he thanked me; I returned
The farewell blessing of the patient man,
And so we parted. Back I cast a look,
And lingered near the door a little space,
Then sought with quiet heart my distant home.

[Footnote 3: In the press of Appleton & Co.]

* * * * *

THE IVORY MINE:

A TALE OF THE FROZEN SEA.

* * * * *

VI.--THE IVORY MINE.

The end of so perilous and novel a journey, which must necessarily,
under the most favorable circumstances, have produced more honor
than profit, was attained; and yet the success of the adventure was
doubtful. The season was still too cold for any search for fossil
ivory, and the first serious duty was the erection of a winter
residence. Fortunately there was an ample supply of logs of wood, some
half-rotten, some green, lying under the snow on the shores of the bay
into which the ri