Alfred Lambourne

“ All glistening lay the snow beneath his light.
As we sped downwards in unbounded zeal
Our snow-shoes sent the spray from off our heel,
The mountain hare, behind some bank cowered low,
We sent in scurry wild across the snow.
You never then had truly guessed my years,
That I was mad with gladness plain appears!
Jo's hot young blood in me seemed to have place,
And merrily with him I kept the race.
To see them stand together, O, what joy—
Plet all in smiles beside my darling boy;
To hear the music of her gentle voice
Made every fiber in my heart rejoice. ”

“ The Christmas Eve—it weighed upon my heart,
It seemed the hot tears from my eyes must start;
In anguish o'er my brow I passed my hand,
Life seemed no surer than a rope of sand:
The Christmas Eve with dire importance fraught,
Plet and her father 'neath the wild snows caught;
72The Christmas Eve and Jo swept to his death,
Upon the jagged rocks to yield his breath,
And Christmas Eve again, and Plet asleep,
Where on the flat the snow lay cold and deep. ”

“ All stuff and nonsense! Never hear them? What!
Their voices hear no more? Believe it not!
How! Voice of Jo or Plet not hear again?
Indeed! Pray whose voice was I hearing then?
Whose voice was that—bright, joyous, full and clear—
A voice that rang with every note of cheer!
Whose voice, indeed, if not the voice of Jo?—
And you'll concede I was the one to know.
My dear boy's voice as lusty as of old,—
Oh, no, he was not 'neath the graveyard mold! ”

“ With Plet and father climbing up the way.
What madness filled his brain to let her come?
The very sight with anguish struck me dumb.
I knew she struggled with her love in vain,
'Twas hopelessness that brought her once again.
The same wild flowers were growing by the lake,
As when she first came for my poor Jo's sake.
Can the eyes speak farewell? Oh! if they can,
How simple was the key to her sad plan.
She only came with her dead hope to part,
To be where love had entered in her heart! ”

“ But Plet begged hard for little time of grace.
He to remove her from those scenes was fain,
She to look on them still would there remain.
How could she go and leave that new-made grave,
When, to be near, her only comfort gave?
Ah, all unlike is woman to the man!
And yet we know 'tis to some noble plan—
Man in his strength, the past lets go its way,
Though thus forever some great hope decay!
But woman, loving, tender, still clings fast,
And hopeless yearns until the very last;
Keeps sacred in her heart and holds supreme
Whate'er remains of her sweet broken dream. ”

“ His virtues were not of the meaner kind,
They came from purity and clean desires.
28Not lack of passions strong, nor manly fires.
'Twas on a bright and noble summer day,
When fast the winter snow-drifts ebbed away;
The cloudless sky was like a crystal dome,
When Plet and father stood within "Our Home."
All nature blended in one vast, grand hymn
What time their nags came o'er the hollow's rim.
We saw them coming from our perch on high—
How quick the love-light sprang in poor Jo's eye!—
We hastened downward, Jo well on before,
And met them ere they reached the cabin door. ”

“ Speak or keep silent,—joy bring or despair!
One moment's action may prove as a knife,
The thread to cut and make or mar a life!
As thus I mused—what had I done for Jo?
Sudden he spoke—"'Twas right that we should go,"
53It startled me,—his words were but a chime;
'Twas clear our thoughts unspoken had kept time:
Who should he think of now if not of Plet?
Oh! how she would at his forced absence fret!
The yester-morn 'twas his desire to start,
But I, the elder, played the cautious part;
To try the slopes too dangerous did appear,—
To me the thought itself was madness sheer. ”

“ And Plet, indeed, was lovely as a bride.
You'll guess, of course, as best man I stood there,
And heard "Good Wishes" heaped upon the pair.
For that flushed look of pride who could blame Jo—
As on Plet's lips he did the kiss bestow?
I think we might as well own up as not—
That single life is but a dreary lot!
I'll bother you no more about our claim,
Or what the mine itself in time became—
The miner often will too much expect,
Yet our first guess was far below correct. ”

“ They beat the lake into a misty cloud,
Or out of their deep bed the waters sweep,
To pass in hissing floods adown the steep.
Thus once had Jo and I beheld them fall,
A sight and sound the stoutest to appal.
'Twas more than once there came to me a thought,
Why tempt adversity more than one ought? ”

“ Their nags were hitched beneath a mighty spruce—
One grizzled, storm-worn arm stretched out for use—
And then—Oh! great, indeed, was Plet's delight,
When first she gazed upon the Babel height!
No less the gloom, the aged savageness,
Impressed her fancy than the gorgeous dress,
Brief summer lends to that high altitude
Between the fierce assaults of winter rude. ”

“ Whose wondrous budding all the being thrills—
Of that enchantment grown between those two,
The fond desire their hearts together drew!
34 V.
After that day to Jo there came a change,—
Not that I thought the fact so very strange—
For love had come, oh! that was plain to see,
And from the first I felt 'twas a decree.
I knew Jo found a heart that Plet had lost,
And only feared their love might be ill-crossed.
Perhaps the boy was not without his hopes
The eve that Plet returned adown the slopes.
Now he abstracted grew and walked alone,
To fits of silent reverie was prone. ”

“ To him I guess 'twas fairest of all bowers—
The spot where he had offered Plet the flowers.
Oft when eve's shadows deepened into nights,
He'll look adown the slopes and watch the lights
That we could see within the distant camp,
Hoping, I knew, to see one special lamp—
Which hope was more than frequent not in vain—
The one that burned behind Plet's window pane.
Yes, he had grown as fond as any dove;
Beyond a doubt, poor Jo was deep in love!
37
VI.
Hurrah! hurrah! And true beyond a doubt!
Hurrah! hurrah! Had we not cause to shout?
She turned her wheel, the changeful, fickle witch ”

“ Striving from day to day to reach "the lead."
Across the debris lay a zig-zag track
Our feet had made in climbing up and back.
And 'tween our claim and cabin, lost in sleep,
A mountain lake lay cold, and dark, and deep.
17Three years we lived there—in that hollow stern,
The mountain's sights and voices well did learn.
Peered down the ledges sunk in watery gloom,
Beheld the flowers that exhaled rich perfume.
By the lake margin they in myriads grew—
Unfolded there the starry asters blue;
Around each boulder, ere the snow was old,
Came gleaming buttercups in rings of gold ”

“ A boldness strong as is the eagle's wing.
And Jo waxed bold, you know the reason why,
He had a cause his hope to justify;
Love progressed fast as ship with wind and tide,
42Ere the snow flew Plet was a promised bride.
"Marry in haste and slow repent you say—
Courtships too quick are somewhat the same way?"
I thought not so, 'twas no ill-mated pair,
The father of Jo's worth was well aware:
Before the day on which our good luck came,
I knew his thoughts of Jo were just the same
As when the fickle maid began to smile—
In mining parlance, when we'd made our "pile." ”

“ While Plet—I'll try my words not to repeat—
Had danced along love's path with willing feet,
The flamed barb was not a whit more slow
To reach her heart than it had been with Jo;
And thus before a year had slipped away,
43The smitten pair had named a wedding day.
But ten months more was added to his life,
And Jo saw coming—Fortune and a wife.
What comfort 'twas to be no longer poor—
To know a wife of his need not endure
Such trial as oft he saw some miner's mate
In patient silence bear from morn 'til late. ”

“ Women and children lay beneath that snow,
And many a bronzed cheek was touched with woe.
Think not those men who toil amid the hills
Lack generous fire that noble bosom fills.
12Their hearts are tender and their hearts are true,
Their sympathies come quick as mountain dew. ”

“ And Jo, in timid and in bashful way—
'Twas like a scene I once saw in a play,
Offered a bunch of flowers. And his face,
As he bent forward, not without grace,
Glowed with confusion and with passion new
As his strong heart and his strong brain were true.
I'd better stop; I grow nonsensical.—
33A monster ledge served both for pedestal,
Jo in his earth-stained garments, heavy boot,
Plet in her jaunty hat and riding suit.
Did I admire them so? Why so it seems,
And even an old man has his need of dreams. ”

“ The rocks, the flashing wavelets, silver seemed;
Each far-off cloud a silver palace gleamed.
Transmuted all to our excited ken—
Yes, silver, silver; all things silver then!
How suddenly for us the world was changed;
For us who every field of want had ranged,
Who through long months had fought the stubborn rock,
Met summer tempests, borne the winter's shock.
40Now the long struggle, the grim fight was o'er,
Privations hard would be our lot no more. ”

“ When Jo consented to try luck as "pards."
Nor did I rue it. 'Twas a well-fought game.
Ere that day ended we had staked a claim.
Led by a hope not easy to dispel,
We built our hut by that deep mountain well.
And there we lived. All gloomy thoughts we quelled,
Believed success was in the future held.
Oft we would sit beside our cabin door,
Each chance of winning look at o'er and o'er;
And as we lit and smoked a friendly pipe,
We'd boast how Fortune's hair we'd tightly gripe.
We saw the yellow twilight in the west
20Grow dim and fade upon the mountain's breast. ”

“ Forget-me-nots were drenched in crystal spray.
The mimulus, the brush, geraniums bright,
Lit up the shadows with a sunny light.
These sounds we heard—the new-born torrent's plaint,
The bird-like chirp of hidden squirrel faint ”

“ Of course they make their home in that same west
79That gave Jo wealth and brought a love the best;
And I?—Yes, I am for the mountains, too;
Strange how their magic will a man pursue!
Yes, they will follow whereso'er you go,
As they who love them once will always know. ”

“ I wish to make this truth appear quite plain,
21'Twas Jo I thought of more than hope of gain.
Brave lad! There shone within his honest eye
A daring will to conquer or to die.
Perhaps 'twas that endeared him to me so,
His fiery youth—and I so tame and slow.
Besides my past had all been a mistake,
While golden promise said to him, Awake!
We started different, I had lost my chance,
The future bade him boldly to advance.
It seemed to me to take but little guess
To know that Jo would make of life success.
III.
And Plet—for later so we found her name—
The very idol of the camp became ”