Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE HUNTER'S DESTINIES. Nieni's crescented and spangled dome O'erarched with love, and fed with dewy light, A garden-hid Virginian home. The airs of summer, in their elfin flight, Stept lightly on the vine-rose leaves That made a low veranda's damask woof, And crept in wreaths above the eave?, And fell in shade along a silvered roof. Within, the moonlight and the bloom, Thro' open lattices that reached the ground— Faint lights and sweets—relieved the gloom ; And both were blended with as faint a sound That echoed from a festal hall, That chirruped from the crickets in the earth, And stole from maize-fields green and tall— From tinkling tambourine, and song and mirth. Without—a garden thro' the open door ; Within—a nodding nurse and sleeping child That lay upon the figured floor, Where flowers of moonlight in the darkness smiled. In slumber mild, Its dainty face with dream-drops beaded o'er, Reposed The Child. The night wore on; the nurse had gone To find the far-off music thro' the trees; Dark lines of level cloud were drawn Across the sinking moon; and with the breeze There came a rising, rushing sound— Wild voices came, but not of midnight brawl; And thro' the casements, and around Where fading moonbeams crept from floor to wall, Dim forms were gliding in the room, Like lights in darkness, shadows in the light; They were the shapes of Hope and Doom. And first, with features fevered with delight, And eyes with dreamy brilliance filled, Young Romance breathed a tale of life and love That thro' the infant's spirit thrilled. Next, bold Adventure came and bent above The couch ; his clarion-voice was heard ; He shouted, laughed and kissed the slumbering child, And passed. The fairest and the third That came...