Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/68

56 From cloth to gold aud gold to silk, to save a paltry mile! This graybeard pay full silken dues on cloth for slave-bred girls! Some prize is here — he shall not pass until he pay for pearls!"

Stern Abram turned a lurid eye, as he the man would slay; An instant, rose the self-command; but thin the lip and quick the hand, As one who makes a last demand: "On pearls the dues I pay!"

"He cannot pass!" the watcher screamed, as to the chest he clung; "He shall not pass! Some priceless thing he hideth here. Quick—workmen bring!
 * I seize this treasure for the King!"

Old Abram stood aghast; it seemed the knell of doom had rung.