I only feel the flush and joy of life,
If I can start fresh quarry every day.
HEDW.
Heedless the while of all your wife's alarms,
As she sits watching through long hours at home.
For my soul sinks with terror at the tales
The servants tell about the risks you run,
Whene'er we part, my trembling heart forebodes,
That you will ne'er come back to me again.
I see you on the frozen mountain steeps,
Missing, perchance, your leap from crag to crag.
I see the chamois, with a wild rebound,
Drag you down with him o'er the precipice.
I see the avalanche close o'er your head,
The treacherous ice give way, and you sink down
Intombed alive within its hideous gulf.
Ah! in a hundred varying forms does death
Pursue the Alpine huntsman on his course.
That way of life can surely ne'er be blessed,
Where life and limb are perill'd every hour.
TELL.
The man that bears a quick and steady eye,
And trusts in God, and his own lusty thews,
Passes, with scarce a scar, through every danger.
The mountain cannot awe the mountain child.
[Having finished his work, he lays aside his tools.]
And now, methinks, the door will hold awhile,
Axe in the house oft saves the carpenter.
[Takes his cap.]
HEDW.
Whither away?
TELL.
To Altdorf, to your father.
HEDW.
You have some dangerous enterprise in view?
Confess!
TELL.
Why think you so?
HEDW.
Some scheme's on foot
Against the governors. There was a Diet
Held on the Rootli-that I know-and you
Are one of the confederacy, I'm sure.
TELL.
I was not there. Yet will I not hold back,
Whene'er my country calls me to her aid.
HEDW.
Wherever danger is, will you be placed.
On you, as ever, will the burden fall.
TELL.
Each man shall have the post that fits his powers.
HEDW.
You took-ay, 'mid the thickest of the storm
The man of Unterwald across the lake.
'Tis marvel you escaped. Had you no thought
Of wife and children, then?
TELL.
Dear wife, I had;
And therefore saved the father for his children.
HEDW.
To brave the lake in all its wrath! 'Twas not
To put your trust in God! 'Twas tempting Him.
TELL.
Little will he that's over cautious do.
HEDW.
Yes, you've a kind and helping hand for all;
But be in straits, and who will lend you aid?
TELL.
God grant I ne'er may stand in need of it!
[Takes up his cross-bow and arrows.]
HEDW.
Why take your cross-bow with you? leave it here.
TELL.
I want my right hand, when I want my bow.
[The boys return.]
WALT.
