The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear; Such were the deeds that helped his youth to train: Rough culture,- but such trees large fruit may bear, If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. So he grew up, a destined work to do, And lived to do it: four long suffering years, Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through, And then he heard the hisses change to cheers. The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise, And took both with the same unwavering mood: Till, as he came on light, from darkling days, And seem to touch the goal from where he stood, A felon hand, between the goal and him, Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest,— And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim, Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest! The words of mercy were upon his lips, The Old World and the New, from sea to sea, A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out. Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife, THE MARTYR CHIEF1 From the Harvard Commemoration Ode, BY JAMES RUSSEL LOWELL Life may be given in many ways, But then to stand beside her, And measure of a stalwart man, Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth, Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, Fed from within with all the strength he needs. Such was he, our Martyr Chief, Whom late the nation he had led, With ashes on her head, Wept with the passion of an angry grief: 1 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company. |