CRAZY JESSIE.

"Oft amidst the lonely rocks
She sings sweet madrigals."

CAMPBELL.

WHERE the wild squirrel leapeth,
A gladsome thing and free ;
Where the lamb idly sleepeth
Upon its folded knee;
Where the clematis streameth
Down from the willow spray -
O know ye not there gleameth
The deep blue Nashaway?

Long hath my lay been sleeping,
Deep in that cradle-vale ;
But memory still is keeping
Some fragments of the tale.
Romance forever flingeth

A charm o'er sylvan dells,
And poesy still singeth,
Wherever beauty dwells.

Vale of the Nashaway!

(Not quite unknown in song,) Who danced in earlier day

Thy wooded paths along? Who sat upon the mossy trees, And braided purple flowers, And mingled with the hum of bees The songs of sunny hours?

Who, that the eye should humid grow
With dewy rays of thought?

Who, that the heart with tender woe
Should feel its pulses fraught?

Vale of the dark blue Nashaway!
Long years ago, long years—
When thy first stricken hemlock lay
Beneath the Prophet's tears-

(The Indian seer, whose vision glanced
Through centuries untrod,

And saw the white man's power advanced
O'er all the unbroken sod ;)
Long years ago, a bright-haired maid

Trod lightly o'er thy ground,
And pulled the roses from the shade,
To plant her cabin round,

Or tracked her father to his toil

At earliest blush of morn,

And dropped, along the furrowed soil,

The seeds of yellow corn.

The little hand grew plump and brown

Beneath the summer's rays;

What mattered that, when Heaven looked down
With smiles of ardent praise?
Her snowy shoulders met the kiss

Of sunbeams through the tree;
But why should Jessie care for this,
A woodland maiden free?

The sire, a pilgrim brave and good,
Had left his native sod,

To find, beneath our broad old wood,
"Freedom to worship God!"

He found it! Ay, no bonds were here
To chain the soul to creeds;

And Jessie clung unto her sire
As young vines cling to stems;
For him she donned her white attire,
And strewed her hair with gems;
That she might seem the same bright girl
That graced his native halls,

With glistening pearl, and floating curl,
The belle of festal balls.

She loved him as the young heart loves

One spirit shrined in clay;

She proved it as love ever proves

The mastery of its sway;

She proved it when his eye grew old

And looked on her with sadness

She proved it when his heart grew cold,— She proved it then in madness!

Gentlest infirmity of life,

When grief breaks up the heart,
And love, undimmed amid the strife,
Lights up each beauteous part!
Like broken roses when a storm
Has spent itself severely;
And, over every tearful form,

The setting sun shines clearly!

So Jessie, stricken by the might

Of solitary woe,

Still shone amid a cloud of light,

A shattered gem divinely bright, An angel chained below;

Pleading like captive to be free, Clanking her viewless chains,

And catching through her walls, may be, A glimpse of heavenly plains.

No fury marked her wildest mood; She trod all meekly on,

Praying that God, when he saw good,

Would say, "Thy task is done!"

Amid lone rocks, by gushing rills,
She wandered free and wild ;
Or sat her down upon the hills,
Like some o'erwearied child,
And sang sweet madrigals of home,

Beside the fountain-wave;

But oftener yet with flowers would come

To strew her father's grave.

At times she'd busy sit and notch

Some favorite chief a quiver,

While tender squaws in turn would watch

Her footsteps by the river;

And oft with tireless feet would run

To meet the kind old chief,

To tell him all the tasks she'd done
And melt him with her grief.

Thus Jessie lived through many years
In toil and guileless play,
Or sat long hours in silent tears

That wore her cheeks away.

Each morning found the mossy mound,
That marked her father's clay,
With fragrant flowers decked gayly round,
Fresh gathered day by day.

At last they faded, and no hand
Removed them as before,

Nor urged the rose-buds to expand
Before their growth was o'er;
But, on the grave, one snowy flower
Lay prostrate, as in prayer;
Poor Jessie, at the vesper hour,
Crept out and perished there!

S. C. E.