Sleighing.
Hear the bells, distant bells!
How the merry music swells,
As the steed, with noble speed,
Nearer, nearer, nearer comes,
Strength doth wing his flying feet;
Onward, onward, onward going,
With a strong and rythmic beat;
Youth, with health and beauty glowing,
Blends a rippling, laughter peal
With the ringing hoofs of steel—
How the mingling music hums!
Hear the bells, joyous bells!
Love’s sweet tale their music tells,
As they go o’er glistening snow;
Wildly, wildly, rushing by,
Fainter grow the hoof-beats now,
Fainter, fainter, fainter growing;
Venus shines on evening’s brow,
Moonlight floods o’er earth are flowing;
O, the reckless wild delights
Of a sparkling, winter night’s
Sleighing, ’neath a moonlit sky!
Ho, the bells, merry bells!
Rapture in their music dwells;
Raptures sweet, in bliss repeat,
Gliding, gliding, o’er the snow.
Every pulse with pleasure thrills;
To the heart new joys revealing.
As when springtime, bird-note trills
Stir the sweetest fount of feeling,
Welling with all tender thought,
From the dulcet music caught,
Blending all in joyous flow!
* * * * *
Hark, the bells—homeward bells!
Something now their music quells,
For they go, tinkling—so—
Tinkle—tinkle—seem to wait;
Why that steed such lagging feet,
When returning, homeward going?
(’Mong the furs their faces meet)—
Ah! that nag is very knowing,
Stepping lightly o’er the snow—
Have their whispers, soft and low,
Changed his mood and changed his gait?