Margaret Smith's Journal - Part 1, from Volume V., the Works of Whittier: Tales and Sketches by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 12 of 171 (07%)
page 12 of 171 (07%)
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dismal howlings and rages! Here all looked peaceful, and bespoke
comfort and contentedness. Even the great woods which climbed up the hills in the distance looked thin and soft, with their faint young leaves a yellowish-gray, intermingled with pale, silvery shades, indicating, as my cousin saith, the different kinds of trees, some of which, like the willow, do put on their leaves early, and others late, like the oak, with which the whole region aboundeth. A sweet, quiet picture it was, with a warm sun, very bright and clear, shining over it, and the great sea, glistening with the exceeding light, bounding the view of mine eyes, but bearing my thoughts, like swift ships, to the land of my birth, and so uniting, as it were, the New World with the Old. Oh, thought I, the merciful God, who reneweth the earth and maketh it glad and brave with greenery and flowers of various hues and smells, and causeth his south winds to blow and his rains to fall, that seed- time may not fail, doth even here, in the ends of his creation, prank and beautify the work of his hands, making the desert places to rejoice, and the wilderness to blossom as the rose. Verily his love is over all,--the Indian heathen as well as the English Christian. And what abundant cause for thanks have I, that I have been safely landed on a shore so fair and pleasant, and enabled to open mine eyes in peace and love on so sweet a May morning! And I was minded of a verse which I learned from my dear and honored mother when a child,-- "Teach me, my God, thy love to know, That this new light, which now I see, May both the work and workman show; Then by the sunbeams I will climb to thee." When we went below, we found on the window seat which looketh to the roadway, a great bunch of flowers of many kinds, such as I had never |
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