Banished.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 270, 11 October 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

Banished.

FBOM MASSACHUSETTS, 1660. Ovjsii the threshold of his pleasant home Set m green dealings passed the exiled Friend, In simple trust, misdoubting not the end. •• Dear heart of mine ! " he said, " the time has come To trust the Lord for shelter." One long gaze The good wife turned on each familiar thing — The lowing kine, the orchard blossoming, The open door that showed the hearth-fire's blaze — And oaltnly answered, " Yea, He will provide." Silent and slow they crossed the homestead's bound, Lingering longest by their child's gravemound. " Move on or stay and hang ! " the sheriff cried. They left behind them more than home or land, And set their faces to an alien strand. Safer with winds and waves than human wrath, With ravening wolves than those whose zeal for God Was cruelty to man, the exiles trod Drear leagues of forest without guide or path, Or, launching frail boats on the uncharted sea, Bound storm-vexed capes, whose teeth of granite ground The waves to foam, their perilous way they wound. Enduring all things so their souls were free, Oh, true confessors, shaming them who did Anew the wrong, their pilgrim fathers bore 1 For you the Mayflower spread her sail once more, Freighted with souls, to all that duty bid Faithful as they who sought an unknown land, O'er wintry seas, from]; Holland's Hook of Sandl Aquidneck's isle, Nantucket's lonely shores, And Indian-haunted Narragansett saw The way-worn travellers round their oatnpfires draw ; Or heard the plashing of their weary oars. And every place whereon they rested grew Happier for pure and graoious womanhood, And men whose name 3 for stainless honor stood, Founders of States and rulers wise and true, The muse of history yet shall make amends To those who freedom, peace, and justice taught, Beyond their dark age led the van of thought, And left unforfeited the name of Friends. O mother State, how follied was thy design I The gain was theirs, the loss alone was thine. — John G. Whittier m Harper's Weekly.