"But give to me your daughter dear,
Give sweet Kathleen to me,

Be she on sea or be she on land,

I'll bring her back to thee."

"My daughter is a lady born,
And you of low degree,

But she shall be your bride the day
You bring her back to me."

He sailéd east, he sailéd west,
And far and long sailed he,
Until he came to Boston town,
Across the great salt sea.

"Oh, have you seen the young Kathleen,

The flower of Ireland?

Ye'll know her by her eyes so blue,
And by her snow white hand!"

Out spake an ancient man: "I know
The maiden whom ye mean;

I bought her of a Limerick man,1
And she is called Kathleen.

"No skill hath she in household work,

Her hands are soft and white,
Yet by her loving looks and ways

She doth her cost requite."

In the early days of the American colonies slavery was common, many of the slaves being white.

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95

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So

up they walked through Boston town, And met a maiden fair,

A little basket on her arm

So snowy white and bare.

"Come hither, child, and say hast thou
This young man ever seen?"

They wept within each other's arms,
The page and young Kathleen.

"Oh, give to me this darling child,
And take my purse of gold."
"Nay, not by me," her master said,
"Shall sweet Kathleen be sold.

"We loved her in the place of one
The Lord hath early ta'en;
But, since her heart's in Ireland,
We give her back again!”

Oh, for that same the saints in heaven
For his poor soul shall pray,

And Mary Mother wash with tears
His heresies away.

Sure now they dwell in Ireland;
As you go up Claremore

Ye'll see their castle looking down
The pleasant Galway shore.

And the old lord's wife is dead and gone,
And a happy man is he,

For he sits beside his own Kathleen,

With her darling on his knee.

J. G. WHITTIER.

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

Why was Kathleen sold?

How was she recovered?

Is this a "good yarn"? Why?

Which do you like better, this or MacDonald's Raid, by Paul H. Hayne? (Page 183.) Why? Which has the swifter movement?

more thrilling story?

Which has the

Do you think the kind of meter used in each suited to the story told? Could they be interchanged without injury?

115

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

(1809-1864)

Nathaniel Hawthorne stands beyond question the greatest of American novelists. A Puritan with a

Puritan conscience, he

was able to understand the feelings of others who were conscience troubled, to an extraordinary degree. Besides this, he possessed the most delicate sensibilities and the finest taste in language. His great novels, The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun, are likely to be classics of the English language long after more popular works have been

forgotten. His short stories are among the perma

nent treasures of our literature.

Hawthorne was a New Englander of the New

Englanders, his earliest American ancestors having settled in Boston in 1630. His great grandfather and his father were both sea captains, men of rigid and bold natures, but Nathaniel was their exact opposite; of most delicate refinement, sensitive to the point of extreme bashfulness, shunning crowds where he could be recognized, he lived a life of comparative seclusion. He was a singularly attractive man, however, and has been described as the Athletic Apollo, yet he tended to melancholy, and had to be continually encouraged by judicious friends to keep him writing.

FEATHERTOP; A MORALIZED LEGEND

This story is one of Hawthorne's few attempts at satire, and in it he is entirely successful. He makes use of the belief in witchcraft, which was almost universal in the early days of this country. It is estimated that during a single century, from 1550 to 1650, more than a million people were put to death as witches in England and continental Europe. Even in this country a few were executed.

"Dickon,"1 cried Mother Rigby, "a coal for my pipe!"

The pipe was in the old dame's mouth when she said these words. She had thrust it there after filling it with tobacco, but without stopping to light 5 it at the hearth, where indeed there was no appear

1 Dickon, an invisible spirit who waited upon the witch.