Page:A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.djvu/373

Rh We hardly know that tears have been shed, and it seems as if weeping were proper only for babes and heroes. Their joy and their sorrow are made of one stuff, like rain and snow, the rainbow and the mist. When Fillan was worsted in fight, and ashamed in the presence of Fingal,

He strode away forthwith, And bent in grief above a stream, His cheeks bedewed with tears. From time to time the thistles gray He lopped with his inverted lance."

Crodar, blind and old, receives Ossian, son of Fingal, who comes to aid him in war;—

My eyes have failed,' says he, 'Crodar is blind, Is thy strength like that of thy fathers? Stretch, Ossian, thine aim to the hoary-haired.' I gave my arm to the king. The aged hero seized my hand; He heaved a heavy sigh; Tears flowed incessant down his cheek. 'Strong art thou, son of the mighty, Though not so dreadful as Morven's prince. * * * Let my feast be spread in the hall, Let every sweet-voiced minstrel sing; Great is he who is within my wall, Sons of wave-echoing Croma.

Even Ossian himself, the hero-bard, pays tribute to the superior strength of his father Fingal.

While we sailed fleetly before the wind, with the river gurgling under our stern, the thoughts of autumn coursed