Eventide A Series of Tales and Poems

"The stars are out, and by their glistening light, I fain would whisper in thine ear a tale; Wilt hear it kindly? and if long and dull Believe me far more deeply grieved than th...

Tap, tap, tap, on the back kitchen door of Esq. Pimble's great brick mansion, and a clattering of plates and tea things within which quite drowned the timid knock. A second and...

"She is a saucy wench, Somewhat o'er full Of pranks, I think--but then with growing years She will outgrow her mischief and become As staid and sober as our hearts could choose."

There was a tiny bark floating down the flower-bordered river that wound so gracefully through the beautiful village of Wimbledon, and a smiling little lady, in a neat gingham s...

All Wimbledon was aroused one cold November morning by a direful conglomeration of sounds;--strange, discordant shrieks, ominous groans, a clanking, as of iron chains and fetter...

"Her face was fairer than face of earth; What was the thing to liken it to? A lily just dipped in the summer dew? Parian marble--snow's first fall? Her brow was fairer than each...

"I fain would know why woman is outraged, And trampled in the very dust by man, Who vaunts himself the lord of all the earth, And e'en the mighty realms of sea and air."

"It is a hermit. Well, methinks I've read In romance tales of such strange beings oft; But surely ne'er did think these eyes should see The living, breathing, walking counterpar...

"A vestal priestess, proudly pure But of a meek and quiet spirit; With soul all dauntless to endure And mood so calm that naught can stir it, Save when a thought most deeply thr...

"I tell thee, husband, 'tis a goodly thing, To get a daughter married off your hands, And know she's found an easy-tempered mate; For many men there be in this rude world. Who d...

And yet this wild woods' man was happy once,-- Bright fame did offer him her richest dower, But disappointment blasted all his hopes, And crushed him 'neath her desolating power.

"Lawyers and doctors at your service. We are better off Without them. True, you are,--but still You follow on their heels, and fawn, And flatter in their faces. If you Would lea...

"Thy hands are filled with early flowers, Thy step is on the wind; The innocent and keen delight Of youth is on thy mind; That glad fresh feeling that bestows Itself the gladnes...

----"She has dark violet eyes, A voice as soft as moonlight. On her cheek The blushing blood miraculous doth range From sea-shell pink to sunset. When she speaks Her soul is shi...

"O, loveliest time! O, happiest day! When the heart is unconscious, and knows not its sway; When the favorite bird, or the earliest flower, Or the crouching fawn's eyes make the...

It was midsummer, and the Hermit of the Cedars sat under his low piazza, curiously constructed of the enwreathed boughs and branches of evergreen trees. He held a volume in his...

"I only know their dream was vain, And that they woke to find it past, And when by chance they met again, It was not as they parted last. His was not faith that lightly dies; Fo...

"The world hath used me well, and now at length In peace and quietness I sit me down To feed upon the fruits of my hard toils. Ambition doth no more distract my breast,-- I've r...

"Ay, little do those features wear The shade of sin,--the soil of care; The hair is parted o'er a brow Open and white as mountain-snow, And clusters there in many a ring, With s...

"And the clear depths of her dark eye Were bright with troubled brilliancy, Yet the lips drooped as with the tear, Which might oppress, but not appear. Her curls, with all their...

"A mien that neither seeks nor shuns The homage scattered in her way; A love that hath few favored ones, And yet for all can work and pray. A smile wherein each mortal reads The...

"Babies are very well when they don't cry, But when they do, I choose not to be nigh; For of all awful sounds that can appal, The most terrific is a baby's squall; I'd rather he...

"From the hour by him enchanted, From the moment when we met; Henceforth by one image haunted, Life may never more forget. All my nature changed--his being Seemed the only sourc...

"He held a letter in his withered hand Which brought good tidings of the absent one. O, what soul-cheering things are letters, when They come fresh from the hand of one we love,...

"Wasting away--away--away, Slowly, silently, day after day. Fainter, and fainter and fainter the flow, Of the current of life more sluggish and slow, And a ghastly glare in the...

"The old days we remember; How softly did they glide! While, all untouched by worldly care, We wandered side by side. In those pleasant days, when the sun's last rays Just linge...

"It is a pleasant thing to roam abroad, And gaze on scenes and objects strange and grand; To sail in mighty ships o'er distant seas, And roam the mountains of a foreign land."

"And when in other climes we meet, Some isle or vale enchanting, And all looks flowery, wild and sweet, And naught but love is wanting, We think how blest had been our fate, If...

"Flow on forever in thy glorious robe Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on, Unfathomed and resistless! God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud Mantled around th...

The Woman's Rights Reform lagged somewhat with the thermometer at eighty, as is frequently the case with benevolent organizations; perhaps because their zealous warmth, when inc...

"Ask why the holy starlight, or the blush Of summer blossoms, or the balm that floats From yonder lily like an angel's breath, Is lavished on such men! God gives them all For so...

"Ye mountains, So varied and so terrible in beauty; Here in your rugged majesty of rocks And toppling trees that twine their roots with stone In perpendicular places, where the...

The sun rose bright above the mountains of the Crawford Notch on the following morning, and illuminated with his brilliant rays all the green valley below. Each member of the la...

"But these recede. Above me are the Alps, The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, And throned Eternity in icy halls Of cold sublimit...

"Love thee! words have no meaning to my deep love; It hath purged me from the weakness of my sex, And made me new create in thee. Love thee! I had not lived until I knew thee."

"Most wondrous vision! The broad earth hath not, Through all her bounds, an object like to thee, That travellers e'er recorded. Nor a spot More fit to stir the poet's phantasy;...

"Once more the sound Of human voices echoes in our ears; And some commotion dire hath roused The female ranks. Let's pause and learn The drift of all this wordy war of tongues."

Yet, O, yet thyself deceive not; Love may sink by slow decay, But by sudden wrench, believe not, Hearts can thus be torn away. Still thine own its life retaineth, Still must min...

"To the old forest home I hie me again; But I bring not the gladness My spirit knew when I roamed in my childhood Its wide-spreading bounds; For sorrows have pierced me, My soul...

"No voice hath breathed upon mine ear Thy name since last we met; No sound disturbed the silence drear, Where sleep entombed from year to year, Thy memory, my regret."

"There are so many signs of wickedness Around me, that my soul is pressed with fear. O, that the power divine would kindly aid Me in my need, and save me from the wiles And artf...

"And they dare blame her! they whose every thought Look, utterance, act, hath more of evil in 't Than e'er she dreamed of or could understand, And she must blush before them, wi...

"Ah, why Do you still keep apart, and walk alone, And let such strong emotions stamp your brow, As not betraying their full import, yet Disclose too much! Disclose too much!--of...

Col. Malcome sat on a velvet sofa, in graceful attire, supporting the wasted form of his daughter; who, thin, pale, and white as the garb she wore, leaned her head, all shorn of...

"All this is well; For this will pass away, and be succeeded By an auspicious hope, which shall look up With calm assurance to that blessed place Which all who seek may win, wha...

The windows of Mr. Pimble's kitchen were raised and therein Peggy Nonce moved vigorously to and fro, with rolled-up sleeves and glowing face, stirring a great fire which roared...

"'Tis silent all!--but on my ear The well-remembered echoes thrill; I hear a voice I should not hear, A voice that now might well be still. Yet oft my doubting soul 't will shak...

A graceful form bent over a printed page, and by the light of a waxen taper, devoured its startling contents. Ah, how awfully startling to the reader! for it was Louise Edson po...

"They loved;--and were beloved. O happiness. I have said all that can be said of bliss In saying that they loved. The young heart has Such store of wealth in its own fresh, wild...

"We leave them at the portal Of earthly happiness; We pray the power immortal May hover o'er to bless; And strew their future pathway With flowers of peace and love, Till death...

"Sweetly wild Were the scenes that charmed me when a child; Rocks, gray rocks, with their caverns dark, Leaping rills, like the diamond spark; Torrent voices thundering by, When...

"Well, about time for me to be stirring these old bones," she murmured. "Good fees last night;" and here she drew a leather bag from beneath her pillow, and chuckled over its co...

"On sped the seasons, and the forest child Was rounded to the symmetry of youth; While o'er her features stole, serenely wild, The trembling sanctity of woman's truth, Her modes...

"A gentle heritage is mine, A life of quiet pleasure; My heaviest cares are but to twine Fresh votive garlands for the shrine Where 'bides my bosom's treasure. I am not merry, n...

"O, show me a place like the wild-wood home, Where the air is fragrant and free, And the first pure breathings of morning come In a gush of melody. When day steals away, with a...

"But don't you see, Dr. Prague, it won't do at all to admit her into society on the same footing with our Catherine? For my part I don't see how you could, for a moment, harbor...

Reclining on a silken sofa, in a luxurious apartment, was a lady in the prime of youth and beauty. She was robed in a white, wrought-muslin gown, and her glossy ringlets lay in...

Annie Evalyn was alone in her apartment. A servant had just left a small package, and she was now occupied with its contents. First was a letter from the good parson, full of fa...

On a dim, gray morning in early winter, Lawrence Hardin sat by the couch of his wife, her thin, wasted hand lying unconsciously in his, and her quick, heavy breathings moving th...

"It is an era strange, yet sweet, Which every woman's heart hath known, When first her bosom learns to beat To the soft music of a tone; That era, when she first begins To know...

"So fails, so languishes, grows dim and dies, All that this world is proud of. From their spheres The stars of human glory are cast down. Perish the roses and the flowers of kin...

"Alas, the joys that fortune brings Are trifling and decay! And those who prize the paltry things, More trifling still than they. And what is friendship but a name, A charm that...

The wild winds wailed wofully over the lonesome prairie, smiting sadly upon poor Annie's heavy heart as she sat in the hard, jolting coach, which, owing to the bad state of the...

"Do you come with the heart of your childhood back, The free, the pure, the kind? Thus murmured the trees in the homeward track, As they played at the sport of the wind."

Up to the clear blue sky, when the sun was gone down on the silent earth, clad in the pure white snow-mantle, and away over the tops of the forest-pines, at the diamond stars hu...

In their sumptuous drawing-room, before a sparkling grate, sat Dr. Prague and his amiable lady, in genial after-dinner mood; he burly, and easy-natured, enjoying his oranges; sh...

There are those that know not the extent of their powers till they are called forth and tasked to the utmost by trial and misfortune. Such an one was Frank Sheldon. Disposed to...

Lawrence Hardin returned from a southern trip to find his house left desolate; wife and child both in their hastily-covered graves. He shook with agony, and scarce was the first...

As the young sapling of the forest bends and sways in the fury of the blast, and, when it is passed, rises and shakes the weight of rain-drops from its pliant boughs, and stands...

"It was a face one loved to gaze upon, For calm serenity of thought was there. The eyes were soft and gentle in their glance, And looked with trusting artlessness in yours. Plac...

"And I did love thee, when so oft we met In the sweet evenings of that summer-time, Whose pleasant memory lingers with me yet, As the remembrance of a better clime Might haunt a...

We are winding to a close. In the delicious coolness of a summer evening, Aunt Patty sat upon her lowly stile, her head drooped pensively on her withered hand, as if absorbed in...

The Mississippi--river of majestic beauties--with the green, delightful shores, elegant plantations, and dense forests of tall cotton-wood and dark, funereal cypress, overhung w...

It was the dinner hour at the splendid mansion of Esq. Camford, the silver service duly laid on the marble dining-table, the heavy curtains drooped before the broad, oriel windo...

Alice bowed to this message, and said she would be pleased to meet her aunt and cousins at the time specified. The woman paused a moment, and then asked timidly,

"O, know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in her clime, Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melts into sorrow,...

"If there is anything I hate on earth, It is a ranting, tattling, prattling jade, Who gossips all day long, and fattens on Her neighbors' foibles, and at night lies down To drea...

"Well, sis, how do you like New Orleans?" asked Wayland Morris of his sister Winnie, as he entered her quiet little study-chamber one evening after the toil of the day was over.

"Indeed, I want to go very much, dear Aunt Debby, and Jack will be so disappointed if you say no. He sent me to plead, because he said nobody could resist me. Will you not let m...

Night after night, high up in the sky, the stars shone wildly bright, but the heaven refused its grateful showers and the earth lay parched to a cinder beneath the blazing sunbe...

O, often, often, far from this, have we watched the great red sun sinking behind the vast stretching prairie, while all the broad west seemed like a surging flood of gold beyond...

"O, bravely, Wayland! 'Tis so delightful to feel I am of some importance in the world, and that I'm laying up money to repay my brother, as far as I am able, for all he has done...

"Ay, there are memories that will not vanish, Thoughts of the past we have no power to banish; To show the heart how powerless mere will; For we may suffer, and yet struggle sti...

The lively winter season was at its height in New Orleans, and all the vast city astir with life and gayety. In the former wealthy home of the Camfords, her wrought slippers res...

We will just step over to Texas this morning, dear reader, for well we know the mocking-birds are singing sweetly, and the wild geese rise from the placid bayous, and flap their...

Where would you like to go now, reader? We are desirous to take you by the path that will lead through this story by the shortest cut, and, as we dare not doubt but that will be...

Being rather benevolently inclined ourselves, we feel a desire to look in once more upon the "Ladies Literary Benevolent Combination for Foreign Aid," which is to-day congregate...

"My task is done; my song hath ceased; my theme Has died into an echo. It is fit The spell should break of this protracted dream. The torch shall be extinguished which hath lit...