Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/288

 282 HOME FROM MEETING.

Turn the arrows aside from the motherless maiden, Though the terrible Pequods are out !&quot;

And then hours of watching, till lo, in the sunset Came a glimmer of gun-barrel bright ;

And on, up the valley, thank God ! slow and surely Came the twain into safety and sight.

&quot;And the hound, Reuben?&quot; &quot;Yonder, a mile or

two back,

With an arrow transfixed in his breast.&quot; &quot;You have come out of danger?&quot; &quot;Ay, mother,

tis true; Little Avis will tell you the rest.&quot;

&quot;Oh, grandmother dear, by the mill the horse shied,

Carlo leaped with a terrible cry, And I saw father clutch at his gun-barrel quick

As an arrow went quivering by.

&quot; Two and three, they came thicker, like horrible hail;

Father groaned and looked white as a sheet, When Carlo stretched out with a pitiful whine,

And died in the road at our feet.

&quot;But, grandmother, something we saw not at all Turned the darts off from father and me,

Just as if we were charmed.&quot; Then grave Reuben

spoke : &quot;The child tells you truly,&quot; said he.

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