Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/456

414 THE DEPARTURE

this roadstead I have ridden,

In this covert I have hidden;

Friendly thoughts were cliffs to me,

And I hid beneath their lee.

This true people took the stranger,

And warm-hearted housed the ranger;

They received their roving guest,

And have fed him with the best;

Whatsoe'er the land afforded

To the stranger's wish accorded;

Shook the olive, stripped the vine,

And expressed the strengthening wine.

And by night they did spread o'er him

What by day they spread before him;—

That good-will which was repast

Was his covering at last.

The stranger moored him to their pier

Without anxiety or fear;

By day he walked the sloping land,

By night the gentle heavens he scanned.

When first his bark stood inland

To the coast of that far Finland,

Sweet-watered brooks came tumbling to the shore

The weary mariner to restore.