;
And, a mirage of the brain,
Flowed her childhood back again.

Flashed the roof the sunshine through,
Into space the walls outgrew,
On the Indian's wigwam mat
Blossom-crowned again she sat.

Cool she felt the west wind blow,
In her ear the pines sang low,
And, like links from out a chain,
Dropped the years of care and pain.

From the outward toil and din,
From the griefs that gnaw within,
To the freedom of the woods
Called the birds and winds and floods.

Well, O painful minister,
Watch thy flock, but blame not her,
If her ear grew sharp to hear
All their voices whispering near.

Blame her not, as to her soul
All the desert's glamour stole,
That a tear for childhood's loss
Dropped upon the Indian's cross.

When, that night, the Book was read,
And she bowed her widowed head,
And a prayer for each loved name
Rose like incense from a flame,

To the listening ear of Heaven,
Lo! another name was given:
"Father! give the Indian rest!
Bless him! for his love has blest!"

THE MAROONS OF JAMAICA.

The Maroons! it was a word of peril once; and terror spread along the
skirts of the blue mountains of Jamaica, when some fresh foray of those
unconquered guerrillas swept down upon the outlying plantations,
startled the Assembly from its order, General Williamson from his
billiards, and Lord Balcarres from his diplomatic ease,--endangering,
according to the official statement, "public credit," "civil rights,"
and "the prosperity, if not the very existence of the country," until
they were "persuaded to make peace" at last. They were the Circassians
of the New World; but they were black, instead of white; and as the
Circassians refused to be transferred from the Sultan to the Czar, so
the Maroons refused to be transferred from Spanish dominion to English,
and thus their revolt began. The difference is, that, while the white
mountaineers numbered four hundred thousand, and only defied Nicholas,
the black mountaineers numbered less than two thousand, and defied
Cromwell; and while the Circassians, after thirty years of revolt, seem
now at last subdued, the Maroons, on the other hand, who rebelled in
1655, were never conquered, but only made a compromise of allegiance,
and exist as a separate race to-day.

When Admirals Penn and Venables landed in Jamaica, in 1655, there was
not a remnant l