Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/87

Rh I give,” Tritemius said, “my prayers.”—“O man Of God!” she cried, for grief had made her bold, “Mock me not thus; I ask not prayers, but gold. Words will not serve me, alms alone suffice; Even while I speak perchance my first-born dies.”

“Woman!” Tritemius answered, “from our door None go unfed, hence are we always poor; A single soldo is our only store. Thou hast our prayers;—what can we give thee more?”

“Give me,” she said, “the silver candle-sticks On either side of the great crucifix. God well may spare them on His errands sped, Or He can give you golden ones instead.”

Then spake Tritemius, “Even as thy word, Woman, so be it! (Our most gracious Lord, Who loveth mercy more than sacrifice, Pardon me if a human soul I prize Above the gifts upon his altar piled!) Take what thou askest, and redeem thy child.”

But his hand trembled as the holy alms He placed within the beggar’s eager palms; And as she vanished down the linden shade, He bowed his head and for forgiveness prayed.

So the day passed, and when the twilight came He woke to find the chapel all aflame, And, dumb with grateful wonder, to behold Upon the altar candlesticks of gold!

all the rides since the birth of time, Told in story or sung in rhyme,— On Apuleius’s Golden Ass, Or one-eyed Calendar’s horse of brass, Witch astride of a human back, Islam’s prophet on Al-Borák,— The strangest ride that ever was sped Was Ireson’s, out from Marblehead!
 * Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,
 * Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart
 * By the women of Marblehead!

Body of turkey, head of owl, Wings a-droop like a rained-on fowl, Feathered and ruffled in every part, Skipper Ireson stood in the cart. Scores of women, old and young, Strong of muscle, and glib of tongue, Pushed and pulled up the rocky lane, Shouting and singing the shrill refrain:
 * “Here ’s Find Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,
 * Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrt
 * By the women o’ Morble’ead!”