If Tam O'Shanter'd had a wheel, and other poems and sketches . But for children, for wives, who bide above,With little to live on but faithful love;Smiling through hunger and cold, womanwise,And raising new hope when an old hope dies;And nerving our arms for a coming day,When for honest work therell be honest pay. We burrow and store, like the senseless mole,Roofed and inclosed by the glittering coal,That changes to gold at touch of your hand—Gold for fresh pleasures, new treasures, more land,166 FROM THE MINE. 167 But leaves us blackhanded, and famished, and sickWith naught in our hands but t
If Tam O'Shanter'd had a wheel, and other poems and sketches . But for children, for wives, who bide above,With little to live on but faithful love;Smiling through hunger and cold, womanwise,And raising new hope when an old hope dies;And nerving our arms for a coming day,When for honest work therell be honest pay. We burrow and store, like the senseless mole,Roofed and inclosed by the glittering coal,That changes to gold at touch of your hand—Gold for fresh pleasures, new treasures, more land,166 FROM THE MINE. 167 But leaves us blackhanded, and famished, and sickWith naught in our hands but the shovel and pick—.Strong keys, which will some day, it may be, unlockThe door that neer yielded to timider knock. We look from the dark and we cannot well seeIn the glare of the world how this thing can be,That you, whore but men such as we, can holdThe balance of powr, the will and the gold,While we, een as if wed gone to the wall,And borne on our ears the brand of your slave in your mines and sullenly turnTo beg for the wage we honestly \\ THE QUEST OF GUDRUN. They had been betrothed whenGudrun was 17 and Olaf had reachedthe age of 21. Betrothed solemnlywith the blessing of the minister; andGudrun had worn on her smooth, yellow braids the mar-riage crown that her mother and hers had worn beforeher, for engagements in Norway are not lightly given orkept, and the betrothal ceremonies are second only to thewedding in importance and pomp. Olaf was a splendid specimen of the Northman; atype of the vikings of song and story; yellow-haired andof kingly stature. The neighbors had frowned and murmured a littlewhen his parents had given him his name as they heldhim at the baptismal fount in the old gray-stone is a kings name, they said, and the keeper offlocks has no right to it! But the holy water was alreadyon the white brow of the child, and old Peters boy wascalled Olaf instead of Peters son. The years went by; and as Olaf grew to manhood alittle girl
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