Now the mother drops breath; she is dumb, and her heart goes dead for a space, And Maclean, and the gillie that told him, dash up in a desperate race. Not a breath's time for asking; an eye-glance reveals all the tale untold. And the lady cries: " Clansmen, run for a fee! Yon castle and lands to the two first hands that shall hook him and hold Fast Hamish back from the brink!"—and ever she flies up the steep, Stern Hamish stands bold on the brink, and dangles the child o'er the deep. Now a faintness falls on the men that run, and they all stand still. And the wife prays Hamish as if he were God, on her knees, 66 Crying: Hamish! O Hamish! but please, but please For to spare him!" and Hamish still dangles the child, with a wavering will. On a sudden he turns; with a sea-hawk scream, and a gibe, and a song, Ten blows on Maclean's bare back shall fall, And ye reckon no stroke if the blood follow not at the bite of the thong!" Then Maclean he set hardly his tooth to his lip that his tooth was red, Let me hurl off the damnable hound in the sea!" But the wife: "Can Hamish go fish us the child from the sea, if dead? mm Say yea! Let them lash me, Hamish?"-"Nay!"-"Husband, the lashing will heal; But, oh, who will heal me the bonny sweet bairn in his grave? Quick! Love! I will bare thee-so-kneel!" Then Maclean 'gan slowly to kneel With never a word, till presently downward he jerked to the earth. Then the henchman-he that smote Hamish-would tremble and lag; Then he struck him, and "One!" sang Hamish, and danced with the child in his mirth. And no man spake beside Hamish; he counted each stroke with a song. Of the mother, and looked all pitiful grave, as repenting a wrong. And there as the motherly arms stretched out with the thanksgiving prayer— And there as the mother crept up with a fearful swift pace, Till her finger nigh felt of the bairnie's face In a flash fierce Hamish turned round and lifted the child in the air, And sprang with the child in his arms from the horrible height in the sea, Crawled up on the crag, and lay flat, and locked hold of dead roots of a tree And there as the motherly a com.ted such st 1 wit in song. dhin a 1e 'owth [ eight, d out with, th· think „ding praver D in th a las arms from the borib be Recage!" 16 de "ly risi ar 1 Mscien A-febie w' an randin Cled up on dat erag, and 'ay t and lockel eld of de dots of a tree |