And do you spread with master's care, You wear the Cross; it signifies The Cross! oh let it say "forgive, My brothers, if you will display So they will tell to God and man, THE BRIDES OF ENDERBY; OR, THE HIGH TIDE. (1571)—Jean Ingelow. The old mayor climbed the belfry tower, "Pull, if ye never pulled before; Good ringers, pull your best," quoth he. Men say it was a stolen tyde The Lord that sent it, He knows all; The message that the bells let fall: By millions crouched on the old sea-wall. I sat and spun within the doore, My thread brake off, I raised myne eyes; The level sun, like ruddy ore, Lay sinking in the barren skies, And dark against day's golden death She moved where Lindis wandereth, My sonne's faire wife, Elizabeth. "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling From the meads where melick groweth "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow; Come uppe Jetty, rise and follow, Come uppe Whitefoot, come uppe Lightfoot, Come uppe Jetty, rise and follow, Jetty, to the milking shed." If it be long, ay, long ago, When I beginne to think howe long, Againe I hear the Lindis flow, Swift as an arrowe, sharp and strong; And all the aire, it seemeth mee, Bin full of floating bells (sayth shee), Alle fresh the level pasture lay, And not a shadowe mote be scene, Save where full fyve good miles away The steeple towered from out the greene; And lo! the great bell farre and wide Was heard in all the country side The swanherds where there sedges are Then some looked uppe into the sky, And where the lordly steeple shows. They ring the tune of Enderby! "For evil news from Mablethorpe, And storms be none, and pyrates flee, I looked without, and lo! my sonne Till all the welkin rang again, (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath "The old sea wall (he cried) is downe, Go sailing uppe the market-place." "Good sonne, where Lindis winds away, And ere yon bells beganne to play With that he cried and beat his breast; And uppe the Lindis raging sped. And rearing Lindis backward pressed, Flung uppe her weltering walls again. Then beaten foam flew round about Then all the mighty floods were out. So farre, so fast the eygre drave, Sobbed in the grasses at oure feet, Upon the roofe we sat that night, The noise of bells went sweeping by; I marked the lofty beacon light Stream from the church tower, red and high A lurid mark and dread to see; And awesome bells they were to mee, That in the dark rang "Enderby." They rang the sailor lads to guide From roofe to roofe who fearless rowed; And I-my sonne was at my side, And yet the ruddy beacon glowed; And yet he moaned beneath his breath, And did'st thou visit him no more ? Thou did'st, thou did'st, my daughter deare; The waters laid thee at his doore, Ere yet the early dawn was clear, Thy pretty bairns in fast embrace, The lifted sun shone on thy face, Downe drifted to thy dwelling-place. P* That flow strewed wrecks about the grass, To manye more than myne and me: I shall never hear her more From the meads where melick groweth, I shall never see her more Where the reeds and rushes quiver, Stand beside the sobbing river, Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow; Come uppe Lightfoot, rise and follow; From your clovers lift the head; RULES FOR PRESERVING HEALTH. 1st. Never hang yourself out of an open window when you go to bed at night. The attraction of gravitation is always powerful during the nocturnal hours, and it may draw you violently against the pavement, and tear your night shirt. |