Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/288

274 One year before. Old-fashioned times and men, And wives and maidens, were in Sweden then. These five came there for counsel: they were tired Of hoping on for all the heart desired; And Jacob, old but mighty-thewed as youth, In all their words did sadly own the truth, And said unto them, "Wealth cannot be found In Sweden now by men who till the ground. I've thought at times of leaving this bare place, And holding seaward with a seeking face For those new lands they speak of, where men thrive. Alone I've thought of this; but now you five— Five brother men of Eibsen blood—shall say If our old stock from here must wend their way, And seek a home where anxious sires can give To every child enough whereon to live."

Then each took thought in silence. Jacob gazed Across them at the pastures worn and grazed