The Wyandotte

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

APRIL 6, 1861

212

LOST JEWELS.

A FLASH of gold—of silver sheen—Of the light thrown quivering back

From gems that shone, like fairy things,

In the palace of Ball & Black.

A stately lady, fair and tall, On her slender fingers tried

The jeweled circlets one by one, But she laid them all aside.

" I have lost a gem that was brighter far Than these in their shimmering light; I shall never find it—never more

It has sunk 'mid the coral white;

For it slipped as I pointed down below

To the waves 'round the good ship's prow, And the ocean queen, in her gleaming home,

May he decked with its glory now."

In a weary tone, with a little sigh,

The lady swept the gems away,

And the quiet salesman put them back,

ill in glittering ranks they lay.

But his eye fell not on the diamond's light,

On the opal's changeful hue, The purple gleam of the amethyst,

Or the pearls like drops of dew.

But a wistful, longing, eager gaze

He cast on the little child

Whom the lady held by a loving clasp

He looked, but he never smiled:

For his eyes grew dim with coming tears

As he stooped to the golden head

For a good-by kiss. In a trembling tone,

Like a dreamer's voice, he said :

"And I a treasure, too, have lost, That was dearer far to me Than a bauble dropp'd in an idle mood Down in the dark blue sea. My jewel slipped from my loving hand, Though I clasped it on my heart Till its light grew strangely dim and pale; Then I knew we must sadly part. " But I shall find my vanished gem, I know"—and the speaker's face grew bright—" Where the golden streets and the pearly gates Will glow in its living light; For His jewels all He will gather in, That were lent on the earth to men ; And then in the shining rank I'll see My long-lost pearl again." On the lady's face a shadow fell, And grave grew her laughing eye, For she heard it still as she walked away—" I shall find it by-and-by." The boy put back his golden hair, Glancing with movement shy, And the echo came in his childish voice—" He will find it by-and-by."

OUR FORT PICKENS PICTURES.

WE continue our series of illustrations of Fort Pickens from sketches by our attentive correspondent in the fort. Our correspondent writes, with reference to the picture of the salute on Washing-ton's birthday :

"This view of the Wyandotte firing a salute on Washington's birthday is taken from the same spot as my last sketch of Fort Pickens, but of course looking in the opposite direction.

" On the right is seen the United States Marine Hospital. On the left of the bow is Barrancas Barracks. In front of this, half hidden by trees, is a private house, economically allowed to cumber the premises in a most inconvenient manner. On the left of the barracks are part of the officers' quarters seen through the foliage, and on the extreme left is Fort Barrancas firing a salute in honor of the day. Between the fort and the long low white beach at the foot of its glacis, and flanked by low shrubbery, is the old Spanish stone water-battery, within a few rods of the ditch of the main work in its rear. When the Spaniards, at the approach of General Jackson, were helped off by the English, they blew up the old Fort San Carlos de Barrancas, on whose site the present fort was built; but the water-battery being uninjured was mounted subsequently by the Americans, and is in all other respects the work as the Spaniards left it.

"The 11 Wyandotte is a third-class sloop of war, mounting four long thirty-twos on the main and two brass pieces on the upper deck. She is commanded by Captain Berryman, who, with his officers and men, deserve great praise for their con-duct since the evacuation of Fort Barrancas, and for the aid given by them to Lieutenant Slemmer, in his labors both then and since. Berryman op-posed the treason of his former comrades, and as soon as relieved from the incubus of Armstrong's command, was ordered to remain by Captain Wank under the walls of the fort. The Wyandotte is sentinel, coast guard, and supply vessel for the fleet. The unanimity and pleasant concord existing between the naval and military commanders affects the men, who have more than once, and in a marked manner, displayed their amor patriae. The few men in Fort Pickens, and the crew of the Wyandotte, are the only ones out here just now who have any thing to do; the rest lie out beyond the bar, and helplessly but unwillingly look on while these devoted fellows work like horses.

" At noon on the 22d some secession guns in the Navy-yard, to the right of the Hospital, most unexpectedly to us opened a salute ; soon after a puff of smoke rolled up from Fort Barrancas, and hid their flag of one star and many stripes, and they were hardly fairly at it before Berryman's port showed a lightning flash, and a column of smoke shooting out, paused an instant, rose, and then the breeze, striking it in the centre, bore it to leeward in an N-like shape over the vessel, while a beautitiful ring hung for a moment over the flag at the main then melted softly away, while one could

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