NATALIE.




CHAPTER I.


THE SEA-FLOWER.


"What was it that I loved so well about my childhood's home?
It was the wide and wave-lashed shore, the black rocks crowned with foam!
It was the sea-gull's flapping wing, all trackless in its flight,
Its screaming note, that welcomed on the fierce and stormy night!
The wild heath had its flowers and moss, the forest had its trees,
Which, bending to the evening wind, made music in the breeze;
But earth,--ha! ha! I laugh e'en now,--earth had no charms for me,
Nor scene half bright enough to win my young heart from the sea.
No! 't was the ocean, vast and deep, the fathomless, the free,--
The mighty rushing waters, that were ever dear to me!"

ELIZA COOK.