tell me, little fellow,
Whither go you, loitering in the summer weather,
Chattering like sweet-voiced birds on a bough together?"

"I am Robert, if you please, and this is Rose, my sister,
Youngest of us all"--he bent his curly head and kissed her,
"Every day we come and wait here till the sun is setting,
Watching for our father's ship, for mother dear is fretting.

"Long ago he sailed away, out of sight and hearing,
Straight across the bay he went, into sunset steering.
Every day we look for him, and hope for his returning,
Every night my mother keeps the candle for him burning.

"Summer goes, and winter comes, and spring returns but never
Father's step comes to the gate. O, is he gone forever?
The great, grand ship that bore him off, think you some tempest wrecked her?"
Tears shone in little Rose's eyes, upturned to her protector.

Eagerly the bonny boy went on: "O, sir, look yonder!
In the offing see the sails that east and westward wander;
Every hour they come and go, the misty distance thronging.
While we watch and see them fade, with sorrow and with longing."

"Little Robert, little Rose!" The stranger's eyes were glistening
At his bronzed and bearded face, upgazed the children, listening;
He knelt upon the yellow sand, and clasped them to his bosom,
Robert brave, and little Rose, as bright as any blossom.

"Father, father! Is it you?" The still air rings with rapture;
All the vanished joy of years the waiting ones recapture!
Finds he welcome wild and sweet, the low-thatched cottage reaching,
But the ship that into sunset steered, upon the rocks lies bleaching.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

Directions for Reading.--Read the conversational parts of this poem
like conversation in prose.

Point out the _emphatic words_ in the first line of the last stanza.

* * * * *

Language Lesson.--_Into sunset steering_, means sailing westward.

_The misty distance thronging_, means gathering together in the
distance.

_The still air rings with rapture_, means that the air becomes full of
joyful shouts.

_All the vanished joy of years the waiting ones recapture_, means that
the children regain the happiness lost during their father's absence.

* * * * *

LESSON IX.

impos'ing, _grand looking; of great size_.

glar'ing, _fierce looking_.

lim'i