The women have builded a signal pile For the birthday's welcome flame, That the light may show for many a mile To tell when the baby came! And south and north The word go forth That the boy is born On that blessèd morn; The boy of deathless fame! II. SIGNAL FIRES The watchmen have waited on Capitol Hill And they light the signal flame; And at Baltimore Bay they waited till The welcome tidings came; And then across the starlit night, At the head of Elk the joyful light Told to the Quaker town the story Of new-born life and coming glory! To Trenton Ferry and Brooklyn Height They sent the signal clear and bright, And far away, Before the day, To Kaatskill and Greylock the joyful flame And everywhere the message came, As the signal flew The people knew That the man of men was born! III. MERRIMAC SIDE, AND AGIOCHOOK So it is, they say, that the men in the bay, In winter's ice and snow, See the welcome light on Wachusett Height While the Merrimac rolls below. The cheery fire Rose higher and higher, Monadnock and Carrigain catch the flame, And on and on, and on it came, And as men look Far away in the north The word goes forth, To Agiochook. The welcome fire Flashed higher and higher To our mountain ways, And the dome, and Moat and Pequawket blaze! So the farmers in the Intervale See the light that shall never fail, The beacon light which shines to tell To all the world to say That the boy has been born On that winter's morn By Potomac far away. Whose great command Shall bless that land Whom the land shall bless In joy and distress Forever and a day! EDWARD EVERETT HALE. CHAPTER IV THE DUTCH AT NEW AMSTERDAM On the fourth day of April, 1609, there put out from the port of Amsterdam a little craft of about eighty tons, called the Half Moon. It had been chartered by the Dutch East India Company to search for the Northwest Passage. Its captain was Henry Hudson, and on September 3 he cast anchor inside Sandy Hook. HENRY HUDSON'S QUEST [1609] Out from the harbor of Amsterdam The Half Moon turned her prow to sea; The coast of Norway dropped behind, Yet Northward still kept she Through the drifting fog and the driving snow, Where never before man dared to go: "O Pilot, shall we find the strait that leads to the Eastern Sea?" "A waste of ice before us lies--we must turn back," said he.