Amidst the storm they sang,
  And the stars heard and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
  To the anthem of the free!

The ocean eagle soar’d
  From his nest by the white wave’s foam;
And the rocking pines of the forest roar’d—­
  This was their welcome home!

There were men with hoary hair
  Amidst that pilgrim band;—­
Why had they come to wither there,
  Away from their childhood’s land?

There was woman’s fearless eye,
  Lit by her deep love’s truth;
There was manhood’s brow serenely high,
  And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?—­
  Bright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?—­
  They sought a faith’s pure shrine!

Ay, call it holy ground,
  The soil where first they trod. 
They have left unstain’d what there they found—­
  Freedom to worship God.

_—­Felicia Browne Hemans_

THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

IN THE SIMILITUDE OF A DREAM

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream.  I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.  I looked, and saw him open the book and read therein; and as he read he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?”

In this plight, therefore, he went home, and restrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased.  Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them:  “O my dear wife,” said he, “and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am certainly informed that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet-babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can be found whereby we may be delivered.”

At this his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing toward night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed.  But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears.  So when the morning was come, they would know how he did.  He told them, “Worse and worse”:  he also set to talking to them again; but they began