The Seaside Truants

Wildly she pass'd along that crowded shore,
With earnest eye fix'd on the ocean rim:
On came the tide, and all would soon wax dim,
And she might never see her darlings more.
But lo! what means that sail-like line of light,
Advancing from the border of the sea
Into that stream of glory, golden-bright?
The mother's eye divines its mystery:
Ah! yes, it is her little white-robed band
Of children wading in the sunny brine,
That winds about the hollows in the sand:
And now, too near for doubt, they glance and shine.
Her sight was true: that far off snowy line
Was Maud and Mary, Kate and Caroline.