The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

1866.

The while he heard, the Book-man drew
     A length of make-believing face,
With smothered mischief laughing through:
     “Why, you shall sit in Ramsay's place,
And, with his Gentle Shepherd, keep
     On Yankee hills immortal sheep,
While love-lorn swains and maids the seas beyond
     Hold dreamy tryst around your huckleberry-pond.”

The Traveller laughed: “Sir Galahad
     Singing of love the Trouvere's lay!
How should he know the blindfold lad
     From one of Vulcan's forge-boys? —” Nay,
He better sees who stands outside
     Than they who in procession ride, “
The Reader answered:” selectmen and squire
     Miss, while they make, the show that wayside folks admire.

“Here is a wild tale of the North,
     Our travelled friend will own as one
Fit for a Norland Christmas hearth
     And lips of Christian Andersen.
They tell it in the valleys green
     Of the fair island he has seen,
Low lying off the pleasant Swedish shore,
     Washed by the Baltic Sea, and watched by Elsinore.”