The Evening Gossip

We sat by the fisher's cottage,

We looked on sea and sky,

We saw the mists of evening Come riding and rolling by :

The lights in the lighthouse window Brighter and brighter grew,

And on the dim horizon A ship still hung in view.

We spake of storm and shipwreck,

Of the seaman's anxious life ;

How he floats 'twixt sky and water, 'Twixt joy and sorrow's strife :

We spoke of coasts far distant,

We spoke of south and north,

Strange men, and stranger customs,

That those wild lands send forth :

Of the giant trees of Ganges,

Whose balm perfumes the breeze ;

And the fair and slender creatures,

That kneel by the lotus-trees :

Of the flat-skulled, wide-mouthed,

Laplanders,

So dirty and so small ;

Who bake their fish on the embers,

And cower, and shake, and squall.

The maidens listened earnestly,

At last the tales were ended ;

The ship was gone, the dusky night Had on our talk descended.