To thee, my darling Hattie, I dedicate the Sea-Flower would that this casketcontained for such as thou, a purer gem.
In writing the following pages the author has spent pleasant hours, whichperhaps might have been less profitably employed: if anything of interest befound among them, it is well,--and, should any be led to take up their Cross inmeekness and humility, searching out the path that leads the wanderer home, itis indeed well.
"What was it that I loved so well about my childhood's home?
It was the wide and wave-lashed shore, the black rocks crowned with foam!
It was the sea-gull's flapping wing, all trackless in its flight,
Its screaming note, that welcomed on the fierce and stormy night!
The wild heath had its flowers and moss, the forest had its trees,
Which, bending to the evening wind, made music in the breeze;
But earth,--ha! ha! I laugh e'en now,--earth had no charms for me,
Nor scene half bright enough to win my young heart from the sea.
No! 't was the ocean, vast and deep, the fathomless, the free,--
The mighty rushing waters, that were ever dear to me!"
"But the goodly pearl which the merchant bought,
And for which his all he gave,
Was a purer pearl than will e'er be brought
From under the FOAMING wave."
"Massa Grobener! Massa Grobener! Please, sar, look here! De good Lord hableft his mitest ob angels here on de beach; and please, sar, step low or de weebit will take to its wings and fly away. De good Lord be praised! but old Bingohab found many a bright sea-weed in his day, but dis am de sweetest sea-flowerob de whole."
And as he spoke, the little one stretched out its tiny arms toward the poor oldblack man and gave a faint moan. Captain Grosven