Page:The Wild Goose.djvu/50





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With feelings of regret I come, the last of the "Wild Geese," to bid you adieu. Week by week, one of our flock has tracked you across the ocean, and flown to you, if not welcome visitors, at least with an earnest wish to be both agreeable and welcome; and though few our number, and our visits having come to a premature end in consequence of the swift approach of the termination of your voyage. I hope that, if not to all, at least to some, our appearance has been a source of some little pleasure, and that we did not entirely fail in our aims. I fain would linger over this adieu – fain would say what my sister "Wild Geese" proposed to themselves the pleasure of saying, (but Wild Geese, like men, propose – and God disposes) had the length of your voyage permitted them to make another appearance. The end of your uneventful but rapid passage quickly approaches, and already your hearts are beginning to quicken in anticipation at what may be your future in the new land you are fast nearing. I know not what may be in store for you, I cannot pierce the inexorable veil of the future – drawn alike for me and you: but on bidding you a long farewell, most likely, however we may wish it never to meet again, I say to you – Courage, and trust in providence, you have in your keeping things the most precious to the heart of man – things that no power can wrest from you, no matter whether your position be that of convicts, exiles, or freemen, your own honor – hitherto preserved unsullied: and remember, that the honor of anyone is not a thing belonging to him alone, to be kept bright or stained at pleasure, but that the honor of each is the honor of all – a sacred trust which it is your duty to keep pure and untarnished. Follow bravely the path of unswerving uprightness, clearing the thorns of each others footsteps, like brothers: failures not discouraged, always remembering that “There is providence shapes all our ends, rough hew them how we may” you are sadly