RUTH.

When Ruth was left half desolate,

Her Father took another Mate;
And so, not seven years old,

The slighted Child at her own will
Went wandering over dale and hill
In thoughtless freedom bold.

And she had made a pipe of straw
And from that oaten pipe could draw
All sounds of winds and floods ;
Had built a bower upon the green,
As if she from her birth had been
An Infant of the woods.

There came a Youth from Georgia's shore,

A military Casque he wore

With splendid feathers drest;

He brought them from the Cherokees;

The feathers nodded in the breeze

And made a gallant crest.

From Indian blood you deem him sprung: Ah no! he spake the English tongue

And bare a Soldier's name;

And when America was free

From battle and from jeopardy

He cross the ocean came.

With hues of genius on his cheek

In finest tones the Youth could speak.

-While he was yet a Boy

The moon, the glory of the sun,

And streams that murmur as they run

Had been his dearest joy.

He was a lovely Youth! I guess
The panther in the wilderness

Was not so fair as he;

And when he chose to sport and play,

No dolphin ever was so gay

Upon the tropic sea.

Among the Indians he had fought,

And with him many tales he brought

Of pleasure and of fear,

He told of Girls, a happy rout,

Who quit their fold with dance and shout

Their pleasant Indian Town

To gather strawberries all day long,

Returning with a choral song

When day-light is gone down.

He spake of plants divine and strange
That ev'ry day their blossoms change,
Ten thousand lovely hues !

With budding, fading, faded flowers
They stand the wonder of the bowers
From morn to evening dews.

He told of the Magnolia,† spread
High as a cloud, high over head!
The Cypress and her spire,

Of *flowers that with one scarlet gleam
Cover a hundred leagues and seem

To set the hills on fire.

+ Magnolia grandiflora.

* The splendid appearance of these scarlet flowers, which are scattered with such profusion over the Hills in the Southern parts of North America is frequently mentioned by Bartram in his Travels.