THE FOSTER-MOTHERS TALE, A DRAMATIC FRAGMENT.

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    <strong>FOSTER-MOTHER.</strong>

    I never saw the man whom you describe.

    MARIA.

    Tis strange! he spake of you familiarly

    As mine and Alberts on Foster-mother.

    FOSTER-MOTHER.

    Now blessings on the man, whoeer he be,

    That joined your names with mine! O my sweet lady,

    As often as I think of those dear times

    When you two little ones would stand at eve

    On each side of my chair, and make me learn

    All you had learnt in the day; and how to talk

    Ile phrase, then bid me sing to you--

    Tis more like heaven to e than what _has_ been.

    MARIA.

    O my dear Mother! this strange man has left me

    Troubled with wilder fahan the moon

    Breeds in the love-sick mai..d who gazes at it,

    Till lost in inward vision, with wet eye

    She gazes idly!--But that entrance, Mother!

    FOSTER-MOTHER.

    o one hear? It is a perilous tale!

    MARIA.

    No one.

    FOSTER-MOTHER

    My husbands father told it me,

    Poor old Leoni!--Angels rest his soul!

    He was a woodman, and could fell and saw

    W..h lusty arm. You know that huge round beam

    Which props the hanging wall of the old chapel?

    Beh that tree, while yet it was a tree

    He found a baby t in mosses, lined

    With thistle-beards, and such small locks of wool

    As hang on brambles. Well, he brought him home,

    And reared him at the th<samp></samp>en Lord Velez cost.

    And so the babe grew up a pretty boy,

    A pretty boy, but most unteachable--

    And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead,

    But khe names of birds, and mocked their notes,

    And whistled, as he were a bird himself:

    And all the autumn twas his only play

    To get the seeds of wild ?owers, and to plant them

    With earth and water, oumps of trees.

    A Friar, who gathered simples in the wood,

    A grey-haired man--he loved this little boy,

    The boy loved him--and, when the Friar taught him,

    He soon could write with the pen: and from that time,

    Lived chie?y at the vent or the Castle.

    So he became a very learned youth.

    But Oh! poor wretch!--he read, and read, and read,

    Till his brain turned--and ere his tweh year,

    He had unlawful thoughts of many things:

    And though he prayed, he never loved to pray

    With holy men, nor in a holy place--

    But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet,

    The late Lord Velez neer was wearied with him.

    And once, as by the north side of the Chapel

    They stood together, ed in deep discourse,

    The earth heaved uhem with such a groan,

    That the wall tottered, and had well-nigh fallen

    Right on their heads. My Lord was sorely frightened;

    A fever seized him, and he made fession

    Of all the heretical and lawless talk

    Which brought this judg<tt>.t>ment: so the youth was seized

    And cast into that hole. My husbands father

    Sobbed like a child--it almost broke his heart:

    And once as he was w in the cellar,

    He heard a voice distinctly; twas the youths,

    Who sung a doleful song about green ?elds,

    How sweet it were on lake or wild savannah,

    To hunt for food, and be a naked man,

    And wander up and down at liberty.

    He always doted on the youth, and now

    His love grew desperate; and defyih,

    He made that irance I described:

    And the young man escaped.

    MARIA.

    Tis a sweet tale:

    Such as would lull a listening child to sleep,

    His rosy face besoiled with uears.--

    And what became of him?

    FOSTER-MOTHER.

    He went on ship-board

    With those bold voyagers, who made discovery

    Of golden lands. Leonis younger brother

    Went likewise, and wheuro Spain,

    He told Leoni, that the poor mad youth,

    Soon after they arrived in that new world,

    In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat,

    And all alone, set sail by silent moonlight

    Up a great river, great as any sea,

    And neer was heard of more: but tis supposed,

    He lived and died among the savage men.

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