Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/23

Rh By ill-fed herds; his glance to corn-fields passed, Where stunted oats, worse each year than the last, And blighted barley, grew amongst the stones, That showed ungainly, like earth's fleshless bones. He sighed, and turned away. "Sons, let me know What think you."


 * Each one answered firm, "We go."

And then they said, "We want no northern wind To chill us more, or driving hail to blind. But let us sail where south winds fan the sea, And happier we and all our race shall be." And so in time there started for the coast, With farm and household gear, this Eibsen host; And there, with others, to a good ship passed. Which soon of Sweden's hills beheld the last.

I know not of their voyage, nor how they Did wonder-stricken sit, as day by day, 'Neath tropic rays, they saw the smooth sea swell And heave; while night by night the north-star fell,