now nothing of the
affair until it came off. When the evening came, the venerable poet
took his usual place next the tongs, and the rest of the party formed a
semicircle around the great fireplace. On such occasions Whittier
always insisted on taking charge of the fire, as he did in his own
home. He even took upon himself the duty of filling the wood-box. No
one in his presence dared to touch the tongs. By and by telegrams began
to be brought in by the landlord from ridiculous people in ridiculous
situations. Some purported to come from an old poet who had the
misfortune to be caught by his coat-tails in one of the Knox bear-traps
on Chocorua. It was suggested that he might be the author of the poem
read at the husking. Lucy Larcom, who, by the way, was another of the
writers popularly supposed to be very serious minded, but who really
was known among her friends as full of fun, read a poem addressed to
the man in the bear-trap, entitled:--

TO THE UNKNOWN AND ABSENT AUTHOR OF "HOW THEY CLIMBED CHOCORUA"

O man in the trap, O thou poet-man!
What on airth are you doin'?--
We haste to the husking as fast as we can,
--But where 's Mr. Bruin?

We listen, we wait for his sweet howl in vain,
Like the far storm resounding.
Brothers Knox ne'er will see Mr. Bruin again,
Through the dim moonlight bounding.

For, thou man in the trap, O thou poet-y-man,
Scared to flight by thy singing,
Away through the mountainous forest he ran,
Like a hurricane winging.

Aye, the bear fled away, and his traps left behind,
For the use of the poet;
If an echo unearthly is borne on the wind--
'T is the man's--you may know it

By its tones of dismay, melancholy and loss,
O'er his coat-tails' sad ruin;
There 's a moan in the pine, and a howl o'er the moss--
But it 's he--'t is n't Bruin!

And the fire you see on the cliff in the air[8]
Is his eye-balls a-glarin'!
And the form that you call old Chocorua there
Is the poet up-rarin'!

And whenever the trees on the mountain-tops thrill
And the fierce winds they blow 'em,
In most awful pause every bear shall stand still--
He 's writing a poem!

Whittier evidently enjoyed the fun, and after the rest had had their
say, he remarked, "That old fellow in the bear-trap must be _in
extremis_. He ought