282 HOME FROM MEETING.
Turn the arrows aside from the motherless maiden, Though the terrible Pequods are out !"
- * * *
And then hours of watching, till lo, in the sunset Came a glimmer of gun-barrel bright ;
And on, up the valley, thank God ! slow and surely Came the twain into safety and sight.
"And the hound, Reuben?" "Yonder, a mile or
two back,
With an arrow transfixed in his breast." "You have come out of danger?" "Ay, mother,
tis true; Little Avis will tell you the rest."
"Oh, grandmother dear, by the mill the horse shied,
Carlo leaped with a terrible cry, And I saw father clutch at his gun-barrel quick
As an arrow went quivering by.
" Two and three, they came thicker, like horrible hail;
Father groaned and looked white as a sheet, When Carlo stretched out with a pitiful whine,
And died in the road at our feet.
"But, grandmother, something we saw not at all Turned the darts off from father and me,
Just as if we were charmed." Then grave Reuben
spoke : "The child tells you truly," said he.
�� �
