Page 269 - Adventures in shadow-land

Careless the cornel spear lie bore,
As be paced, the sand along the sea.

“ Low in the sky the red moon hung,
The wind vvcnt wandering wild and free;
T o and fro the foam-bells swung

Off from the sand into the sea.

** 'Com e up, my love,’ he called, *oh come!
Give, oh goddess, once more to me

That fairest face in the whilening foam,
On the pebbly marge ’twixt the sand and sea.1

*‘ The sunset faded like smouldering brand,

And never the nymph again saw he \
The shadow sloped from the tall headland

Off from the sand, out o’er the sea.

“ His was a being that, born to-day,
Grows old to-morrow and dies, and she
Lived on for ages as fair alway,
To sing on the shore ftwixt the sand and the Sea.

** Yet oh, my lover, by this right hand,
It was fate, not I, that was false to th ee;
F or thine was the life of the solid land,
And I was a thing of the restless sea*”

As Arethusa finished her song, the merman came

swimming wearily toward the three nymphs. If