XVI. Soon he gathered the balsam dew From the sorrel leaf and the henbane bud; Over each wound the balm he drew, And with cobweb lint he staunched the blood. The mild west wind was soft and low, XVII. Wrapped in musing stands the sprite : But he must do his errand right Ere dawning mounts her beamy car, And rolls her chariot wheels of light; And vain are the spells of fairy-land, He must work with a human hand. XVIII. He cast a saddened look around But he felt new joy his bosom swell, When, glittering on the shadowed ground, He saw a purple muscle shell; Thither he ran, and he bent him low, He heaved at the stern and he heaved at the bow, As ever fairy had paddled in, For she glowed with purple paint without, Then sprung to his seat with a lightsome leap, XIX. The imps of the river yell and rave; But they heaved the billow before the prow, And they dashed the surge against her side, And they struck her keel with jerk and blow, Till the gunwale bent to the rocking tide. She wimpled about in the pale moonbeam, Like a feather that floats on a wind-tossed stream; And momently athwart her track The quarl upreared his island back, And the fluttering scallop behind would float, But he bailed her out with his colen-bell, And he kept her trimmed with a wary tread, While on every side like lightning fell XX. Onward still he held his way, Till he came where the column of moonshine lay, The brown-backed sturgeon slowly swim: Then he dropped his paddle blade, To catch the drop in its crimson cup. XXI. With sweeping tail and quivering fin, He plunged him in the deep again, The rainbow of the moony main. It was a strange and lovely sight To see the puny goblin there; He seemed an angel form of light, With azure wing and sunny hair, Throned on a cloud of purple fair, Circled with blue and edged with white, And sitting at the fall of even Beneath the bow of summer heaven. D XXII. A moment and its lustre fell, is won A droplet of its sparkling dew- XXIII. He turns, and lo! on either side And the track o'er which his boat must pass Their sea-green ringlets loosely float; |