"Take thou my Dragon with silken sails,"
Said Olaf, "The Ox shall be mine in place.
If it pleases our Lord to send me gales,
In either vessel I'll win the race.
With this exchange art satisfied ?"
"Ay, brother," the crafty one replied.
King Olaf strode to the church to pray
For blessing of God on crew and ship;
But Harold, the traitor, made haste to weigh
His anchor, and out of the harbor slip.
"Pray!" laughed Harold Haardrade, "pray
The wind's in my favor, let sail! Away!"
As Olaf knelt by the chancel rail,
Down the broad aisle came one in haste, With panting bosom and cheeks all pale; Straight to King Olaf's side he paced:
Oh, waste no time in praying," cried he, "For Harold already is far at sea!"
But Olaf answered: "Let sail who will,
Without God's blessing I shall not go."
Beside the altar he tarried still,
While the good priest chanted, soft and low;
And Olaf prayed the Lord in his heart,
"I shall win yet if Thou take my part!"
Cheerily then he leaped on board;
High on the prow he took his stand;
"Forward!" he bade, "In the name of the Lord!" Held the white horn of the Ox in his hand : "Now Ox, good Ox, I pray thee speed
As if to pasture in clover mead !"'
The huge Ox rolled from side to side,
And merrily out of the harbor sped.
"Dost see the Dragon ?" King Olaf cried
To the lad who clung to the high mast-head.
"Not so!" the watcher swift answer gave, "There is never a boat upon the wave."
Onward, then, for a league and twain, Right in the teeth of the wind they flew. "See'st aught of the Dragon upon the main ?" "Something to the landward sure I view ! Far ahead I can just behold
Silken sails with a border of gold."
The third time Olaf called with a frown:
"Dost see my Dragon yet? Ho! Say!"
Out of the mast-head the cry came down:
"Nigh to the shores of Norroway
The good ship Dragon rides full sail,
Driving ahead before the gale !"
"Ho! to the haven ?" King Olaf cried, And smote the eye of the Ox with his hand.
It leaped so madly along the tide
That never a sailor on deck could stand;
But Olaf lashed them firm and fast,
With trusty cords, to the strong oak mast.
"Now, who," the helmsman said, " will guide The vessel upon the tossing sea?" "That will I do!" King Olaf cried,
"Ando man's life shall be lost through me." Like a living coal his dark eyes glowed, As swift to the helmsman's place he strode.
Looking neither to the left nor right,
Toward the land he sailed right in,
Steering straight as a line of light;
"So must I run if I would win ;
Faith is stronger than hills or rocks,
Over the land speed on, good Ox!"
Into the valleys the waters rolled;
Hillocks and meadows disappeared;
Grasping the helm in his iron hold,
On, right onward, St. Olaf steered;
High and higher the blue waves rose;
"On!" he shouted, "no time to lose !"
Out came running the elves in a throng;
Out from cavern and rock they came;
"Now, who is this comes sailing along
Over our homes? Ho! tell us thy name!"
"I am St. Olaf, my little men!
Turn into stone until I come again."
The elf-stones rolled down the mountain side;
The sturdy Ox sailed over them all.
"Ill luck be with thee!" a Carline cried,
"Thy ship has shattered my chamber wall!"
In Olaf's eyes flashed a fiery glint:
"Be turned forever to rock or flint!"
Never was sailing like this before;
He shot an arrow along the wind,
Or ever it lighted the ship sailed o'er
The mark; the arrow fell far behind.
"Faster, faster!" cried Olaf, "skip,
Fleet as Skadbladnir, the magic ship!"
Swifter and swifter across the foam
The quivering Ox leaped over the track
Till Olaf came to his boyhood's home;
Then, fast as it rose, the tide fell back,
And Olaf was king of the whole Norseland,
When Harold, the third day, reached the strand,
Such was the sailing of Olaf the king,
Monarch and saint of Norroway,
In view of whose wonderous prospering
The Norse have a saying unto this day:
"As Harold Haardrade found to his cost,
Time spent in praying is never lost !”
ALICE WILLIAMS BROTHERTON,
In Atlantic Monthly.
BILL THE ENGINEER.
[Gestures indicated by Frances E. Pierce.]
"ALL 'board!" "Spheee-ee-chee-sphee-ee-choof"
And the iron horse moves his steel-rimmed hoof,
And snorts from his chest his breath of steam,
With a quickening pulse and warning scream;
Moves out' with his freight of human lives-
A sinuous chain of humming hives
Anon the hum is a rattling din,
As the bright steel arms fly out and in,
Till naught is heard save a deafening jar,
As the train speeds on like a shooting star,
With a lengthening trail' like a smoky pall
Whose writhing folds envelop all.
"Stoke up!" shouts Bill the engineer;
"We must rush this grade and the bottom clear
With a monstrous bulge, to pull up hill
T'other side-heavy train." "All right, Bill!"
And the coal went in and the throttle out.
"Watch yo' side the curve!" from Bill with a snout
Adown the grade with open throttle
They swiftly glide as a flying shuttle-
Weaving in streaks of green and gray,
The warp and woof of bush and clay,
While steam and smoke and dust behind
Form mottled clouds in the tortured wind.
Through the cut and into the vale-
Across the trestle that spans the swale;
There the willows swirl, and the rank weeds swav,
And the heron starts with a shriek away"—
Blown from her course-a shrill refrain,
'Mid the whirling gusts of the flying train.
Beyond the curve this side the hill,
There runs a creek-by the old saw-min-
A covered bridge' and a water tank,
With the watchman's shanty on this bank:
A quiet nook, for the mill is done,—
With crippled Jemmie is ceased to run.
Just round the curve in the shady wood
That fringes the creek, his low hut stood,
Where Jemmie the watch spent his useful life
With a lovely child and a loving wife.
Naught now came their peace to mar
Worse than a swift train's rumbling jar.
To fame unknown, but to roadman dear,
For Jemmie had watched from year to year—
And more than once did his vigil save
A train and its lives from a watery grave,
Since broken in purse and form at the mill
He worked on crutches-a good watch still!
"Hark! "Tis the train !" The mother's ear Leans to the sound; then a mortal fear freezes her veins-she sees not her child 110
Oh, darling! Oh, Maggie !" in accents wild. She starts" from the hut-now feeling the way: Keep Maggie in when the trains go by."
She strains her eyes" out toward the creek,
Where up the track, with an ashen cheek,
Hobbled the watch" -one pointed crutch
Where Maggie lay" in the engine's clutch-
The wilting flowers across her breast;
She'd wearied to sleep in their eager quest.
"Save her, Mary 15 For God's sake run!"
Came Jemmie's voice like a signal gun;
The mother sprang like a startled deer,
But the rushing train" was now too near-
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