Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/221

Rh That cold hands were tearing from his heart its pharisaic screens, That the preacher was a tiger with the voice of Nathan Beans! And he shrieked and jumped up wildly, and upon the seat stood he, As if standing on the whaler looking outward on the sea; And he clutched as at the rigging with a horror in his eye. For he saw the woods of Java and he heard that human cry, As he crouched and cowered earthward. And the simple folk around Stood with looks of kindly sympathy: they raised him from the ground, And they brought him half unconscious to the humble chapel door, Whence he fled as from a scourging, and he entered it no more; For the sight of that old preacher brought the horror to his face,