which was at no time his most ready attribute, the mule yielded to the weight of the current, and as the rider was not attentive to keep her head turned up the river, she drifted downward, lost the ford and her footing at once, and began to swim with her head down the stream. And what was sufficiently strange, at the same moment, notwithstanding the extreme peril, the damsel began to sing, thereby increasing. if anything could increase, the bodily fear of the worthy sacristan.
I
Merrily swim we, the inoon shines bright.
Both current and ripple are dancing in light.
We have roused the night raven. I heard him croak,
As we plashed along beneath the oak.
That flings its broad branches so far and so wide,
Their shadows are dancing in midst of the tide.
'Who wakens my nestlings.' the raven he said.
'My beak shall ere morn in his blood be red.
For a blue swoln corpse is a dainty meal.
And I'll have my share with the pike and the eel.'
II
Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright.
There's a golden gleam on the distant height:
There's a silver shower on the alders dank.
And the drooping willows that wave on the bank.
I see the abbey, both turret and tower.
It is all astir for the vesper hour;
The monks for the chapel are leaving each cell.
But where's Father Philip, should toll the bell?
III
Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright.
Downward we drift through shadow and light.
Under yon rock the eddies sleep,
Calm and silent, dark and deep.
The Kelpy has risen from the fathomless pool.
He has lighted his candle of death and of dool.
Look, Father, look, and you'll laugh to see
How he gapes and glares with his eyes on thee!
IV
Good luck to your fishing, whom watch ye to-night?
A man of mean, or a man of might?
Is it layman or priest that must float in your cove.
Or lover who crosses to visit his love?
