of adversity blow;
When the loved one is lying all helpless abed,
And children are crying and begging for bread.
Yes, little you dream, ye rich sons of Jove
Of the trials of love in a rough mountain cove.

Josh Bell battled bravely, and fought sin and wrong
And the mighty temptation with a heart true and strong;
But Susan grew weaker, till bright bloomed the rose
That ever the blanched cheek of consumption shows.
"I must save her," he cried, "Oh, God, let the cost
Be my life; if she dies, I am lost, I am lost!"
And Joshua Bell smote his breast with a blow
That only the frenzy of a lover can know.
At a deep hour of night when the hoot of the owl
Made the dark glen as lonesome as haunt of a cowl,
Josh Bell left his cabin for a cave in the hill,
And began the erection of a small mountain still.
For weeks here he labored at midnight alone,
With a firm resolution and a heart like a stone:
Then his own golden corn he had gathered in sheaf,
He now husked in darkness and stole like a thief.

Ah, Joshua Bell, the world does not know
The depth of thy grief, the weight of thy woe,--
The conflict of conscience and love in thy breast,
The struggle of duty and shame unconfessed.
Thy act is a crime in the eyes of the law,
No matter the motive, it weighs not a straw;
No matter the liquid distilled be as dew
That drips from the stem and chalice of rue.

But the comforts of life that lessen the pain
Of those whom we love, ease conscience and brain;
And Josh half forgot the cave in the hill,
And the white sparkling liquor that flowed from the still,
When Sue smiled and said, "By thy great sacrifice
Of unceasing toil and love without price,
I am better to-day; with return of the spring
We can labor together where the brown thrushes sing."

Thus Josh kept his secret, and the daffodils came
That bloom but for those unworthy of blame;
And Sue never knew that the gold and the gain
Was purchased with liquor distilled from their grain.
But the sleuth-hounds of law found the cave in the hill
At a late hour of night and raided the still;
Then surrounded the cabin, and woke Josh and Sue
And demanded surrender of the moonshiners, too.

With Winchester rifle Josh leaped from his couch,
"I'll never surrender, nor cower, nor crouch
To cowardly villai