A carefuller in peril, did not breathe And ere he touch'd his one-and-twentieth May He purchased his own boat, and made a home For Annie, neat and nestlike, halfway up The narrow street that clamber'd toward the mill. Then, on a golden autumn eventide, The younger people making holiday, With bag and sack and basket, great and small, Went nutting to the hazels. Philip stay'd (His father lying sick and needing him) An hour behind; but as he climb'd the hill, Enoch and Annie, sitting hand-in-hand, His large gray eyes and weather-beaten face That burn'd as on an altar. Philip look'd, And in their eyes and faces read his doom; So these were wed, and merrily rang the bells, And merrily ran the years, seven happy years, Seven happy years of health and competence, And mutual love and honourable toil; With children; first a daughter. In him woke, With his first babe's first cry, the noble wish To save all earnings to the uttermost, And give his child a better bringing-up Than his had been, or hers; a wish renew'd, When two years after came a boy to be While Enoch was abroad on wrathful seas, Or often journeying landward; for in truth Far as the portal-warding lion-whelp, And peacock-yewtree of the lonely Hall, Whose Friday fare was Enoch's ministering. Then came a change, as all things human change. Ten miles to northward of the narrow port Open'd a larger haven: thither used Enoch at times to go by land or sea; And once when there, and clambering on a mast In harbour, by mischance he slipt and fell : A limb was broken when they lifted him; And while he lay recovering there, his wife Another hand crept too across his trade Taking her bread and theirs and on him fell, : Altho' a grave and staid God-fearing man, Yet lying thus inactive, doubt and gloom. And her, he loved, a beggar: then he pray'd And wanting yet a boatswain. Would he go? Rejoicing at that answer to his prayer. So now that shadow of mischance appear'd So might she keep the house while he was gone. Become the master of a larger craft, With fuller profits lead an easier life, |