A beacon overlooked the shore;
Within a big bell hung;
And three stout men stood at the rope
Whenever it was swung.
In storms and tumults it was heard,
Loud crying through the gloom,
Or at the menace of strange craft,
And fear was in its boom.
It chanced, one day, that to the wharf
Came Esther, Joseph's wife,
And on the wet sand played her boy,
The pearl of Esther's life.
He chased the ripples up and down,
He stoned the swooping birds,
And called upon the tall gray cliff
And made it speak his words.
"Mamma! mamma!" The woman turned,
He was not on the beach,--
Green breakers snatched and hurried him
Far out beyond her reach.
She saw his curls; one sob to heaven
The piteous mother sent;
Then struggling up the stony chasm,
Her breathing well-nigh spent,
She sprang within the tower door,
She seized the hempen coil,
And at the dozen shivering peals
Each laborer left his toil.
"O woe is me! O grievous woe!"
The booming message rang,
"Oh! hasten, yeoman! Woe is me!"
It cried,--"Clang-clang, clang-clang!"
They placed the boy safe in her arms,
And still the big bell hummed;
And Joseph bore them to his home,
Before the bell was dumbed.
The tower still stands beside the sea;
Within, the bell is hung;
But never yet hath man been known
Who waked its mighty tongue.
