wly drifting,
The river sang below,
The dim Sierras,[1] far beyond, uplifting
Their minarets of snow.

The roaring camp-fire, with rude humor, painted 5
The ruddy tints of health
On haggard face and form that drooped and fainted
In the fierce race for wealth;

Till one arose, and from his pack's scant treasure
A hoarded volume drew, 10
And cards were dropped from hands of listless leisure,
To hear the tale anew;

And then, while round them shadows gathered faster,
And as the firelight fell,
He read aloud the book wherein the Master[2] 15
Had writ of "Little Nell."[3]

Perhaps 'twas boyish fancy,--for the reader
Was youngest of them all,--
But, as he read, from clustering pine and cedar
A silence seemed to fall; 20

The fir-trees, gathering closer in the shadows,
Listened in every spray,
While the whole camp, with "Nell," on English meadows
Wandered and lost their way.

And so in mountain solitudes--o'ertaken 25
As by some spell divine--
Their cares dropped from them like the needles shaken
From out the gusty pine.

Lost is that camp, and wasted all its fire:
And he who wrought that spell?-- 30
Ah, towering pine and stately Kentish spire,[4]
Ye have one tale[5] to tell!

Lost is that camp! but let its fragrant story[6]
Blend with the breath that thrills
With hop-vines' incense[7] all the pensive glory 35
That fills the Kentish hills.

And on that grave where English oak and holly
And laurel wreaths intwine,[8]
Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly,--
This spray of Western pine. 40

--Harte.

[1] Sierra. A Spanish term, meaning a mountain range. The name
Sierra was applied, of course, to a great many different ranges.

[2] the Master. Dickens.

[3] Little Nell. The heroine of Dickens' novel, _The Old Curiosity
Shop_.

[4] Dickens died at Gadshill, Kent, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey.

[5] one tale. Both they who heard the story, and he who wrote it, are
dead.

[6] Let the fragrance of the western pine blend with the incense of
the hop-vines in memory of Dickens. In other words, let me add this
story as another tribute to his memory.

[7] hop-vines' incense. The smell of t