The blast swept our wilderness lodging away!

"The children--dear hearts!--it is touching to see
My Beverly's beautiful kindness to me;
So buoyant his mein--so heroic--resigned--
The boy has the soul of his father, I find!
Not a childish complaint or regret have I heard,--
Not even from Archie, a petulant word:
Once only--a tear moistened Sophy's bright cheek:
'_Papa has no home now!_'--'twas all she could speak.

"A stranger I wander midst strangers; and yet
I never,--no, not for a moment forget
That my heart has a home,--just as real, as true,
And as warm as if Beechenbrook sheltered me too.
God grant that this refuge from sorrow and pain--
This blessedest haven of peace, may remain!
And, then, though disaster, still sharper, befall,
I think I can patiently bear with it all:
For the rarest, most exquisite bliss of my life
Is wrapped in a word, Douglass ... I am your wife!"




IX.


When fierce and fast-thronging calamities rush
Resistless as destiny o'er us, and crush