diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/53667-h/53667-h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/53667-h/53667-h.htm | 7094 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 7094 deletions
diff --git a/old/53667-h/53667-h.htm b/old/53667-h/53667-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 285d5a3..0000000 --- a/old/53667-h/53667-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7094 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> - <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Song of Hugh Glass, by John G. Neihardt</title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } - h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; } - h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; } - h3 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; } - h4 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.0em; } - .pageno { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: silver; - text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; - border: thin solid silver; padding: .1em .2em; font-style: normal; - font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; } - p { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: justify; } - .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } - .large { font-size: large; } - .xlarge { font-size: x-large; } - .lg-container-b { text-align: center; } - @media handheld { .lg-container-b { clear: both; } } - .lg-container-l { text-align: left; } - @media handheld { .lg-container-l { clear: both; } } - .lg-container-r { text-align: right; } - @media handheld { .lg-container-r { clear: both; } } - .linegroup { display: inline-block; text-align: left; } - @media handheld { .linegroup { display: block; margin-left: 1.5em; } } - .linegroup .group { margin: 1em auto; } - .linegroup .line { text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em; } - div.linegroup > :first-child { margin-top: 0; } - .linegroup .in12 { padding-left: 9.0em; } - .linegroup .in14 { padding-left: 10.0em; } - .linegroup .in16 { padding-left: 11.0em; } - .linegroup .in18 { padding-left: 12.0em; } - .linegroup .in2 { padding-left: 4.0em; } - .linegroup .in20 { padding-left: 13.0em; } - .linegroup .in22 { padding-left: 14.0em; } - .linegroup .in24 { padding-left: 15.0em; } - .linegroup .in25 { padding-left: 15.5em; } - .linegroup .in26 { padding-left: 16.0em; } - .linegroup .in28 { padding-left: 17.0em; } - .linegroup .in30 { padding-left: 18.0em; } - .linegroup .in32 { padding-left: 19.0em; } - .linegroup .in34 { padding-left: 20.0em; } - .linegroup .in36 { padding-left: 21.0em; } - .linegroup .in38 { padding-left: 22.0em; } - .linegroup .in6 { padding-left: 6.0em; } - .linegroup .in8 { padding-left: 7.0em; } - .ol_1 li {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; } - ol.ol_1 {padding-left: 0; margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: .5em; - margin-bottom: .5em; list-style-type: decimal; } - div.pbb { page-break-before: always; } - hr.pb { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-bottom: 1em; } - @media handheld { hr.pb { display: none; } } - .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } - .figcenter { clear: both; max-width: 100%; margin: 2em auto; text-align: center; } - div.figcenter p { text-align: center; text-indent: 0; } - .figcenter img { max-width: 100%; height: auto; } - .id001 { width:20%; } - .id002 { width:80%; } - @media handheld { .id001 { margin-left:40%; width:20%; } } - @media handheld { .id002 { margin-left:10%; width:80%; } } - .ic002 { width:100%; } - .ig001 { width:100%; } - .table0 { margin: auto; margin-top: 2em; } - .nf-center { text-align: center; } - .nf-center-c1 { text-align: left; margin: 1em 0; } - .c000 { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - .c001 { margin-top: 4em; } - .c002 { margin-top: 2em; } - .c003 { margin-top: 1em; } - .c004 { page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em; } - .c005 { page-break-before:auto; margin-top: 4em; } - .c006 { margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - .c007 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; padding-right: 1em; } - .c008 { vertical-align: top; text-align: left; text-indent: -1em; - padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; } - .c009 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; } - .c010 { margin-left: 2.78%; font-size: 90%; } - .c011 { margin-left: 2.78%; font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0.5em; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - .c012 { page-break-before: always; margin-top: 2em; } - .c013 { margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: 1em; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 0.5em; - } - .c014 { page-break-before: auto; margin-top: 2em; } - .c015 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - .c016 { font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - .c017 { margin-left: 11.11%; font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0.5em; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - .c018 { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } - div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; - border:1px solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; } - .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } - div.tnotes p { text-align:left; } - @media handheld { .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block;} } - img {max-width: 100%; height:auto; } - .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; - margin: .67em auto; } - .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; - } - </style> - </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's The Song of Hugh Glass, by John Gneisenau Neihardt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Song of Hugh Glass - -Author: John Gneisenau Neihardt - -Commentator: Julius T. House - -Release Date: December 4, 2016 [EBook #53667] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SONG OF HUGH GLASS *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber's Note:</strong></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>THE SONG OF HUGH GLASS</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_002.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</div> - <div>NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS</div> - <div>ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO</div> - <div class='c003'>MACMILLAN & CO., <span class='sc'>Limited</span></div> - <div>LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA</div> - <div>MELBOURNE</div> - <div class='c003'>THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class='sc'>Ltd.</span></div> - <div>TORONTO</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<div> - <h1 class='c004'>THE SONG OF HUGH GLASS</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>BY</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>JOHN G. NEIHARDT</span></div> - <div class='c003'>WITH NOTES</div> - <div class='c003'>BY</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>JULIUS T. HOUSE</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Head of the Department of English at the State Normal School, Wayne, Nebraska</span></div> - <div class='c002'><span class='large'>New York</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>1921</span></div> - <div class='c003'><em>All rights reserved</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><span class='sc'>Copyright</span>, 1915, 1919,</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</div> - <div class='c003'>Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1915.</div> - <div class='c002'>Norwood Press</div> - <div>J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.</div> - <div>Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<div class='ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>TO SIGURD, SCARCELY THREE</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When you are old enough to know</div> - <div class='line'>The joys of kite and boat and bow</div> - <div class='line'>And other suchlike splendid things</div> - <div class='line'>That boyhood’s rounded decade brings,</div> - <div class='line'>I shall not give you tropes and rhymes;</div> - <div class='line'>But, rising to those rousing times,</div> - <div class='line'>I shall ply well the craft I know</div> - <div class='line'>Of shaping kite and boat and bow,</div> - <div class='line'>For you shall teach me once again</div> - <div class='line'>The goodly art of being ten.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Meanwhile, as on a rainy day</div> - <div class='line'>When ‘tis not possible to play,</div> - <div class='line'>The while you do your best to grow</div> - <div class='line'>I ply the other craft I know</div> - <div class='line'>And strive to build for you the mood</div> - <div class='line'>Of daring and of fortitude</div> - <div class='line'>With fitted word and shapen phrase,</div> - <div class='line'>Against those later wonder-days</div> - <div class='line'>When first you glimpse the world of men</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond the bleaker side of ten.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>NOTE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>The following narrative is based upon an episode taken -from that much neglected portion of our history, the era -of the American Fur Trade. My interest in that period -may be said to have begun at the age of six when, clinging -to the forefinger of my father, I discovered the Missouri -River from a bluff top at Kansas City. It was flood -time, and the impression I received was deep and lasting. -Even now I cannot think of that stream without a thrill -of awe and something of the reverence one feels for -mighty things. It was for me what the sea must have -been to the Greek boys of antiquity. And as those ancient -boys must have been eager to hear of perils nobly -encountered on the deep and in the lands adjacent, so -was I eager to learn of the heroes who had travelled my -river as an imperial road. Nor was I disappointed in -what I learned of them; for they seemed to me in every -way equal to the heroes of old. I came to think of them -with a sense of personal ownership, for any one of many -of them might have been my grandfather—and so a little -of their purple fell on me. As I grew older and came -to possess more of my inheritance, I began to see that -what had enthralled me was, in fact, of the stuff of sagas, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>a genuine epic cycle in the rough. Furthermore, I realized -that this raw material had been undergoing a process -of digestion in my consciousness, corresponding in a way -to the process of infinite repetition and fond elaboration -which, as certain scholars tell us, foreran the heroic narratives -of old time.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I decided that some day I would begin to tell these -hero tales in verse; and in 1908, as a preparation for -what I had in mind, I descended the Missouri in an -open boat, and also ascended the Yellowstone for a considerable -distance. On the upper river the country was -practically unchanged; and for one familiar with what -had taken place there, it was no difficult feat of the -imagination to revive the details of that time—the men, -the trails, the boats, the trading posts where veritable -satraps once ruled under the sway of the American Fur -Company.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Hugh Glass episode is to be found in Chittenden’s -“History of the American Fur Trade” where it -is quoted from its three printed sources: the <em>Missouri -Intelligencer</em>, Sage’s “Scenes in the Rocky Mountains,” -and Cooke’s “Scenes in the United States Army.” The -present narrative begins after that military fiasco known -as the Leavenworth Campaign against the Aricaras, which -took place at the mouth of the Grand River in what is -now South Dakota.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>J. G. N.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary='CONTENTS'> - <tr> - <th class='c007'>CHAPTER</th> - <th class='c008'> </th> - <th class='c009'>PAGE</th> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>I.</td> - <td class='c008'><span class='sc'>Graybeard and Goldhair</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>II.</td> - <td class='c008'><span class='sc'>The Awakening</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>III.</td> - <td class='c008'><span class='sc'>The Crawl</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>IV.</td> - <td class='c008'><span class='sc'>The Return of the Ghost</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>V.</td> - <td class='c008'><span class='sc'>Jamie</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span> - <h2 class='c005'>INTRODUCTION</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>If the average student of Western American History -in our schools were asked to recall those names which -loom large for him during the four decades from the -purchase of the Louisiana Territory to the coming -of the settlers, he would doubtless think of Lewis -and Clark, Lieutenant Pike, Major Long, and General -Frémont, with perhaps one or two others. That is -to say, the average student of Western History is -familiar with the names of official explorers; and but -for their exploits, those forty wonderful years would -seem to him little more than a lapse of empty time -in a vast region waiting for the westering white man.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It is true that the deeds of those above named -were important. The journey of Lewis and Clark -from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia, and -back again, has immense significance in the story of -our national life, and it was truly a “magnificent -adventure,” to use the phrase of Emerson Hough. -Pike holds and deserves a high place for his explorations -in the Southwest. Long’s contribution to the -early knowledge of the West was considerable; and -Frémont’s expeditions served, at least, to awaken the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>popular Eastern mind to the great possibilities of the -Trans-Missouri region. Frémont’s reputation, however, -is out of all proportion to his real accomplishment, -for the trails he travelled were well known to white -men long before he ventured into the wilderness. In -this connection, Major Chittenden, one of the foremost -authorities on the subject, tells us that “there -never has been a time until very recently when the -geography of the West was so thoroughly understood -as it was by the trader and trapper from 1830 to 1840.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>When Lewis and Clark were descending the Missouri -River in the summer of 1806 on their return from -the mouth of the Columbia, they met bands of traders -pushing on toward the country from whence the explorers -had just come. These were the vanguard of -the real history makers of the Early West. It was -such men as these who, during the next generation, -as Chittenden says, “first explored and established -the routes of travel which are now and always will be -the avenues of commerce in that region.” The period -that followed the return of Lewis and Clark was one -of the most enthralling in the entire story of the human -race, and yet the very names of its principal heroes -are practically unknown except to specialists in Western -History. The stories of their exploits have not -yet reached our schools, and are to be found, for the -most part, hidden away in the collections of state -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>historical societies and in contemporary journals and -books of travel long since out of print. The Mormon -Emigration, the Mexican War, the Gold Rush to -California, and the Oregon Question filled the popular -imagination during the early years of the West, and -thus an important phase of our national development -was overlooked and forgotten.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nevertheless, it remains true that the story of the -West during the first four decades of the nineteenth -century is the story of the wandering bands of trappers -and traders who explored the wilderness in search of -furs from the British boundary to Mexico and from -the Missouri to the Pacific. History, as written in -the past, has been too much a chronological record of -official governmental acts, too little an intimate account -of the lives of the people themselves. Doubtless, -the democratic spirit that now seems to be sweeping -the world will, if it continues to spread, revolutionize -our whole conception of history, bringing us -to realize that the glory of the race is not the glory -of a chosen few, but that it radiates from the precious -heroic stuff of common human lives. And that view, -I am proud to say, is quite in keeping with our dearest -national traditions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now the fur trade on the Missouri River dates well -back into the eighteenth century, and at the time of -the Revolutionary War, parties of trappers had already -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span>ascended as far north as the Big Bend in the -present state of South Dakota. But it was not until -after the return of Lewis and Clark from the Northwest, -and of Lieutenant Pike from the Southwest, -that the great era of the fur trade began. In 1807 -the Spanish trader, Manuel Lisa, ascended the -Missouri and the Yellowstone to the mouth of the -Big Horn, where he erected a trading post. Returning -to St. Louis the next year, he became the leading -spirit in the “St. Louis Missouri Fur Company,” the -troubled career of which, during the succeeding fifteen -years, was rich in the stuff of which epics are -made. Major Andrew Henry, who appears in “The -Song of Hugh Glass” as leader of the westbound expedition -from the mouth of the Grand River, was a -member of that company, ascending the Missouri to -the Three Forks in the summer of 1809. Driven -thence by the Blackfeet, he crossed the Great Divide -and built a post on what has since been called Henry’s -fork of the Snake River, thus being the first American -trader to operate on the Pacific side of the Rockies.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the spring of 1811, the Overland Astorians, under -the command of W. P. Hunt, left St. Louis, bound for -the mouth of the Columbia where they expected to -join forces with a sea expedition that had set sail from -New York during the previous autumn for the long -and hazardous voyage around Cape Horn. This is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span>the only widely known expedition in the whole history -of the Trans-Missouri fur trade, thanks to Washington -Irving, whose account of it is an American classic.</p> - -<p class='c000'>During the War of 1812 the fur trade on the Missouri -declined; and though in the year 1819 five companies -of some importance were operating from St. Louis, -none of these was doing a profitable business. The -revival of the trade, which ushered in the great epic -period of our national development, may be dated -from March 20th, 1822, when the following advertisement -appeared in the <em>Missouri Republican</em> of -St. Louis:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To Enterprising Young Men:</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The subscriber wishes to engage one hundred young men -to ascend the Missouri River to its source, there to be -employed for one, two or three years. For particulars -enquire of Major Andrew Henry, near the lead mines in -the County of Washington, who will ascend with and -command the party; or of the subscriber near St. Louis.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>(Signed) <span class='sc'>William H. Ashley.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>Major Henry has already been mentioned as a -veteran trader of the upper country. Ashley, who -was at that time General of the Missouri Militia and -Lieutenant Governor of the recently admitted state, -was about to make his first trip into the wilderness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Setting out in the spring of 1822, Major Henry, -with his one hundred “enterprising young men” -(some of whom were young only in spirit), ascended -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvi'>xvi</span>to the mouth of the Yellowstone. This was before -the era of the Missouri River steamboat, and the two -keelboats, that bore the trading stock and supplies -of the party, were “cordelled,” that is to say, pulled -by tow-line. General Ashley accompanied the expedition, -returning to St. Louis in the fall. Early in -the spring of 1823 he started north again with a second -band of one hundred men. Stopping to trade for -horses at the Ree villages near the mouth of the Grand, -he was attacked by that most treacherous of the -Missouri River tribes, received a sound drubbing, lost -most of his horses, and was compelled to drop down -stream to await reënforcements. It was in this battle -that old Hugh Glass received his hip wound.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Jedediah Smith, who was a member of the defeated -party, and who had fought with conspicuous bravery, -volunteered to carry the news of disaster to Henry -at the mouth of the Yellowstone. He was then but -twenty-four years old; yet during the next six years -he was destined to discover and explore the central -and southwestern routes to the Pacific—an achievement -of equal importance with that of Lewis and -Clark, and performed under much greater difficulties. -Immediately upon the arrival of Smith at the mouth -of the Yellowstone, Henry, with most of his band, -started south to the relief of Ashley.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the meanwhile, Ashley had apprised the Indian -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvii'>xvii</span>Agent and military authorities at Fort Atkinson of his -rough treatment; and Colonel Leavenworth started -north with 220 men, intent upon chastising the Rees -and making the Missouri River safe for American -traders. The campaign that followed, in which the -Whites were aided by a band of Sioux, was in some -important respects a fiasco, as the opening lines of the -poem suggest. But that does not greatly matter here.</p> - -<p class='c000'>What does matter, is the fact that the muster roll -of the two parties of Ashley and Henry, then united -at the mouth of the Grand, contained nearly all of the -great names in the history of the West from the time -of Lewis and Clark to the coming of the settlers. -Harrison Clifford Dale, whose “Ashley-Smith Explorations -to the Pacific” easily ranks him as the -supreme authority on this particular period, has the -following to say regarding the Ashley-Henry men: -“The wanderings of this group during the next ten -or fifteen years cover the entire West.... It was the -most significant group of continental explorers ever -brought together.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>After the Leavenworth campaign against the Rees, -Major Henry, with eighty men, set out for the mouth -of the Big Horn by way of the Grand River valley. -Hugh Glass acted as hunter for the westbound party, -and it is at this point that the following narrative begins. -Old Glass was not himself an explorer, yet his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xviii'>xviii</span>adventures serve to illustrate the heroic temper of -the men who explored the West, as well as the nature -of the difficulties they encountered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In building the epic cycle, of which “The Song of -Hugh Glass” and “The Song of Three Friends” are -parts (each, however, being complete in itself), I am -concerned with the wanderings of that group of men -who were assembled for the last time at the mouth of -the Grand. Long ago, when I was younger than most -of you who are now about to study the poem here -presented, I dreamed of making those men live again -for the young men and women of my country. The -tremendous mood of heroism that was developed in -our American West during that period is properly a -part of your racial inheritance; and certainly no less -important a part than the memory of ancient heroes. -Indeed, it can be shown that those men—Kentuckians, -Virginians, Pennsylvanians, Ohioans—were -direct descendants, in the epic line, of all the heroes -of our Aryan race that have been celebrated by the -poets of the Past; descendants of Achilles and Hector, -of Æneas, of Roland, of Sigurd, and of the knights -of Arthur’s court. They went as torch-bearers in the -van of our westering civilization. Your Present is, -in a great measure, a heritage from their Past.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And their blood is in your veins!</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>John G. Neihardt.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>THE SONG OF HUGH GLASS</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c005'>I<br /> GRAYBEARD AND GOLDHAIR</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The year was eighteen hundred twenty three.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Twas when the guns that blustered at the Ree</div> - <div class='line'>Had ceased to brag, and ten score martial clowns</div> - <div class='line'>Turned from the unwhipped Aricara towns,</div> - <div class='line'>Earning the scornful laughter of the Sioux.</div> - <div class='line'>A withering blast the arid South still blew,</div> - <div class='line'>And creeks ran thin beneath the glaring sky;</div> - <div class='line'>For ‘twas a month ere honking geese would fly</div> - <div class='line'>Southward before the Great White Hunter’s face:</div> - <div class='line'>And many generations of their race,</div> - <div class='line'>As bow-flung arrows, now have fallen spent.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It happened then that Major Henry went</div> - <div class='line'>With eighty trappers up the dwindling Grand,</div> - <div class='line'>Bound through the weird, unfriending barren-land</div> - <div class='line'>For where the Big Horn meets the Yellowstone;</div> - <div class='line'>And old Hugh Glass went with them.</div> - <div class='line in32'>Large of bone,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>Deep-chested, that his great heart might have play,</div> - <div class='line'>Gray-bearded, gray of eye and crowned with gray</div> - <div class='line'>Was Glass. It seemed he never had been young;</div> - <div class='line'>And, for the grudging habit of his tongue,</div> - <div class='line'>None knew the place or season of his birth.</div> - <div class='line'>Slowly he ‘woke to anger or to mirth;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet none laughed louder when the rare mood fell,</div> - <div class='line'>And hate in him was like a still, white hell,</div> - <div class='line'>A thing of doom not lightly reconciled.</div> - <div class='line'>What memory he kept of wife or child</div> - <div class='line'>Was never told; for when his comrades sat</div> - <div class='line'>About the evening fire with pipe and chat,</div> - <div class='line'>Exchanging talk of home and gentler days,</div> - <div class='line'>Old Hugh stared long upon the pictured blaze,</div> - <div class='line'>And what he saw went upward in the smoke.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But once, as with an inner lightning stroke,</div> - <div class='line'>The veil was rent, and briefly men discerned</div> - <div class='line'>What pent-up fires of selfless passion burned</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath the still gray smoldering of him.</div> - <div class='line'>There was a rakehell lad, called Little Jim,</div> - <div class='line'>Jamie or Petit Jacques; for scarce began</div> - <div class='line'>The downy beard to mark him for a man.</div> - <div class='line'>Blue-eyed was he and femininely fair.</div> - <div class='line'>A maiden might have coveted his hair</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>That trapped the sunlight in its tangled skein:</div> - <div class='line'>So, tardily, outflowered the wild blond strain</div> - <div class='line'>That gutted Rome grown overfat in sloth.</div> - <div class='line'>A Ganymedes haunted by a Goth</div> - <div class='line'>Was Jamie. When the restive ghost was laid,</div> - <div class='line'>He seemed some fancy-ridden child who played</div> - <div class='line'>At manliness ‘mid all those bearded men.</div> - <div class='line'>The sternest heart was drawn to Jamie then.</div> - <div class='line'>But his one mood ne’er linked two hours together.</div> - <div class='line'>To schedule Jamie’s way, as prairie weather,</div> - <div class='line'>Was to get fact by wedding doubt and whim;</div> - <div class='line'>For very lightly slept that ghost in him.</div> - <div class='line'>No cloudy brooding went before his wrath</div> - <div class='line'>That, like a thunder-squall, recked not its path,</div> - <div class='line'>But raged upon what happened in its way.</div> - <div class='line'>Some called him brave who saw him on that day</div> - <div class='line'>When Ashley stormed a bluff town of the Ree,</div> - <div class='line'>And all save beardless Jamie turned to flee</div> - <div class='line'>For shelter from that steep, lead-harrowed slope.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet, hardly courage, but blind rage agrope</div> - <div class='line'>Inspired the foolish deed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'>‘Twas then old Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>Tore off the gray mask, and the heart shone through.</div> - <div class='line'>For, halting in a dry, flood-guttered draw,</div> - <div class='line'>The trappers rallied, looked aloft and saw</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>That travesty of war against the sky.</div> - <div class='line'>Out of a breathless hush, the old man’s cry</div> - <div class='line'>Leaped shivering, an anguished cry and wild</div> - <div class='line'>As of some mother fearing for her child,</div> - <div class='line'>And up the steep he went with mighty bounds.</div> - <div class='line'>Long afterward the story went the rounds,</div> - <div class='line'>How old Glass fought that day. With gun for club,</div> - <div class='line'>Grim as a grizzly fighting for a cub,</div> - <div class='line'>He laid about him, cleared the way, and so,</div> - <div class='line'>Supported by the firing from below,</div> - <div class='line'>Brought Jamie back. And when the deed was done,</div> - <div class='line'>Taking the lad upon his knee: “My Son,</div> - <div class='line'>Brave men are not ashamed to fear,” said Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>“And I’ve a mind to make a man of you;</div> - <div class='line'>So here’s your first acquaintance with the law!”</div> - <div class='line'>Whereat he spanked the lad with vigorous paw</div> - <div class='line'>And, having done so, limped away to bed;</div> - <div class='line'>For, wounded in the hip, the old man bled.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It was a month before he hobbled out,</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie, like a fond son, hung about</div> - <div class='line'>The old man’s tent and waited upon him.</div> - <div class='line'>And often would the deep gray eyes grow dim</div> - <div class='line'>With gazing on the boy; and there would go—</div> - <div class='line'>As though Spring-fire should waken out of snow—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>A wistful light across that mask of gray.</div> - <div class='line'>And once Hugh smiled his enigmatic way,</div> - <div class='line'>While poring long on Jamie’s face, and said:</div> - <div class='line'>“So with their sons are women brought to bed,</div> - <div class='line'>Sore wounded!”</div> - <div class='line in16'>Thus united were the two:</div> - <div class='line'>And some would dub the old man ‘Mother Hugh’;</div> - <div class='line'>While those in whom all living waters sank</div> - <div class='line'>To some dull inner pool that teemed and stank</div> - <div class='line'>With formless evil, into that morass</div> - <div class='line'>Gazed, and saw darkly there, as in a glass,</div> - <div class='line'>The foul shape of some weakly envied sin.</div> - <div class='line'>For each man builds a world and dwells therein.</div> - <div class='line'>Nor could these know what mocking ghost of Spring</div> - <div class='line'>Stirred Hugh’s gray world with dreams of blossoming</div> - <div class='line'>That wooed no seed to swell or bird to sing.</div> - <div class='line'>So might a dawn-struck digit of the moon</div> - <div class='line'>Dream back the rain of some old lunar June</div> - <div class='line'>And ache through all its craters to be green.</div> - <div class='line'>Little they know what life’s one love can mean,</div> - <div class='line'>Who shrine it in a bower of peace and bliss:</div> - <div class='line'>Pang dwelling in a puckered cicatrice</div> - <div class='line'>More truly figures this belated love.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet very precious was the hurt thereof,</div> - <div class='line'>Grievous to bear, too dear to cast away.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>Now Jamie went with Hugh; but who shall say</div> - <div class='line'>If ‘twas a warm heart or a wind of whim,</div> - <div class='line'>Love, or the rover’s teasing itch in him,</div> - <div class='line'>Moved Jamie? Howsoe’er, ‘twas good to see</div> - <div class='line'>Graybeard and Goldhair riding knee to knee,</div> - <div class='line'>One age in young adventure. One who saw</div> - <div class='line'>Has likened to a February thaw</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh’s mellow mood those days; and truly so,</div> - <div class='line'>For when the tempering Southwest wakes to blow</div> - <div class='line'>A phantom April over melting snow,</div> - <div class='line'>Deep in the North some new white wrath is brewed.</div> - <div class='line'>Out of a dim-trailed inner solitude</div> - <div class='line'>The old man summoned many a stirring story,</div> - <div class='line'>Lived grimly once, but now shot through with glory</div> - <div class='line'>Caught from the wondering eyes of him who heard—</div> - <div class='line'>Tales jaggéd with the bleak unstudied word,</div> - <div class='line'>Stark saga-stuff. “A fellow that I knew,”</div> - <div class='line'>So nameless went the hero that was Hugh—</div> - <div class='line'>A mere pelt merchant, as it seemed to him;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet trailing epic thunders through the dim,</div> - <div class='line'>Whist world of Jamie’s awe.</div> - <div class='line in32'>And so they went,</div> - <div class='line'>One heart, it seemed, and that heart well content</div> - <div class='line'>With tale and snatch of song and careless laughter.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Never before, and surely never after,</div> - <div class='line'>The gray old man seemed nearer to his youth—</div> - <div class='line'>That myth that somehow had to be the truth,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet could not be convincing any more.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now when the days of travel numbered four</div> - <div class='line'>And nearer drew the barrens with their need,</div> - <div class='line'>On Glass, the hunter, fell the task to feed</div> - <div class='line'>Those four score hungers when the game should fail.</div> - <div class='line'>For no young eye could trace so dim a trail,</div> - <div class='line'>Or line the rifle sights with speed so true.</div> - <div class='line'>Nor might the wistful Jamie go with Hugh;</div> - <div class='line'>“For,” so Hugh chaffed, “my trick of getting game</div> - <div class='line'>Might teach young eyes to put old eyes to shame.</div> - <div class='line'>An old dog never risks his only bone.”</div> - <div class='line'>‘Wolves prey in packs, the lion hunts alone’</div> - <div class='line'>Is somewhat nearer what he should have meant.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And so with merry jest the old man went;</div> - <div class='line'>And so they parted at an unseen gate</div> - <div class='line'>That even then some gust of moody fate</div> - <div class='line'>Clanged to betwixt them; each a tale to spell—</div> - <div class='line'>One in the nightmare scrawl of dreams from hell,</div> - <div class='line'>One in the blistering trail of days a-crawl,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>Venomous footed. Nor might it ere befall</div> - <div class='line'>These two should meet in after days and be</div> - <div class='line'>Graybeard and Goldhair riding knee to knee,</div> - <div class='line'>Recounting with a bluff, heroic scorn</div> - <div class='line'>The haps of either tale.</div> - <div class='line in25'>‘Twas early morn</div> - <div class='line'>When Hugh went forth, and all day Jamie rode</div> - <div class='line'>With Henry’s men, while more and more the goad</div> - <div class='line'>Of eager youth sore fretted him, and made</div> - <div class='line'>The dusty progress of the cavalcade</div> - <div class='line'>The journey of a snail flock to the moon;</div> - <div class='line'>Until the shadow-weaving afternoon</div> - <div class='line'>Turned many fingers nightward—then he fled,</div> - <div class='line'>Pricking his horse, nor deigned to turn his head</div> - <div class='line'>At any dwindling voice of reprimand;</div> - <div class='line'>For somewhere in the breaks along the Grand</div> - <div class='line'>Surely Hugh waited with a goodly kill.</div> - <div class='line'>Hoofbeats of ghostly steeds on every hill,</div> - <div class='line'>Mysterious, muffled hoofs on every bluff!</div> - <div class='line'>Spurred echo horses clattering up the rough</div> - <div class='line'>Confluent draws! These flying Jamie heard.</div> - <div class='line'>The lagging air droned like the drowsy word</div> - <div class='line'>Of one who tells weird stories late at night.</div> - <div class='line'>Half headlong joy and half delicious fright,</div> - <div class='line'>His day-dream’s pace outstripped the plunging steed’s.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>Lean galloper in a wind of splendid deeds,</div> - <div class='line'>Like Hugh’s, he seemed unto himself, until,</div> - <div class='line'>Snorting, a-haunch above a breakneck hill,</div> - <div class='line'>The horse stopped short—then Jamie was aware</div> - <div class='line'>Of lonesome flatlands fading skyward there</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath him, and, zigzag on either hand,</div> - <div class='line'>A purple haze denoted how the Grand</div> - <div class='line'>Forked wide ‘twixt sunset and the polar star.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A-tiptoe in the stirrups, gazing far,</div> - <div class='line'>He saw no Hugh nor any moving thing,</div> - <div class='line'>Save for a welter of cawing crows, a-wing</div> - <div class='line'>About some banquet in the further hush.</div> - <div class='line'>One faint star, set above the fading blush</div> - <div class='line'>Of sunset, saw the coming night, and grew.</div> - <div class='line'>With hand for trumpet, Jamie gave halloo;</div> - <div class='line'>And once again. For answer, the horse neighed.</div> - <div class='line'>Some vague mistrust now made him half afraid—</div> - <div class='line'>Some formless dread that stirred beneath the will</div> - <div class='line'>As far as sleep from waking.</div> - <div class='line in32'>Down the hill,</div> - <div class='line'>Close-footed in the skitter of the shale,</div> - <div class='line'>The spurred horse floundered to the solid vale</div> - <div class='line'>And galloped to the northwest, whinnying.</div> - <div class='line'>The outstripped air moaned like a wounded thing;</div> - <div class='line'>But Jamie gave the lie unto his dread.</div> - <div class='line'>“The old man’s camping out to-night,” he said,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>“Somewhere about the forks, as like as not;</div> - <div class='line'>And there’ll be hunks of fresh meat steaming hot,</div> - <div class='line'>And fighting stories by a dying fire!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The sunset reared a luminous phantom spire</div> - <div class='line'>That, crumbling, sifted ashes down the sky.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now, pausing, Jamie sent a searching cry</div> - <div class='line'>Into the twilit river-skirting brush,</div> - <div class='line'>And in the vast denial of the hush</div> - <div class='line'>The champing of the snaffled horse seemed loud.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then, startling as a voice beneath a shroud,</div> - <div class='line'>A muffled boom woke somewhere up the stream</div> - <div class='line'>And, like vague thunder hearkened in a dream,</div> - <div class='line'>Drawled back to silence. Now, with heart abound,</div> - <div class='line'>Keen for the quarter of the perished sound,</div> - <div class='line'>The lad spurred gaily; for he doubted not</div> - <div class='line'>His cry had brought Hugh’s answering rifle shot.</div> - <div class='line'>The laggard air was like a voice that sang,</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie half believed he sniffed the tang</div> - <div class='line'>Of woodsmoke and the smell of flesh a-roast;</div> - <div class='line'>When presently before him, like a ghost,</div> - <div class='line'>Upstanding, huge in twilight, arms flung wide,</div> - <div class='line'>A gray form loomed. The wise horse reared and shied,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>Snorting his inborn terror of the bear!</div> - <div class='line'>And in the whirlwind of a moment there,</div> - <div class='line'>Betwixt the brute’s hoarse challenge and the charge,</div> - <div class='line'>The lad beheld, upon the grassy marge</div> - <div class='line'>Of a small spring that bullberries stooped to scan,</div> - <div class='line'>A ragged heap that should have been a man,</div> - <div class='line'>A huddled, broken thing—and it was Hugh!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There was no need for any closer view.</div> - <div class='line'>As, on the instant of a lightning flash</div> - <div class='line'>Ere yet the split gloom closes with a crash,</div> - <div class='line'>A landscape stares with every circumstance</div> - <div class='line'>Of rock and shrub—just so the fatal chance</div> - <div class='line'>Of Hugh’s one shot, made futile with surprise,</div> - <div class='line'>Was clear to Jamie. Then before his eyes</div> - <div class='line'>The light whirled in a giddy dance of red;</div> - <div class='line'>And, doubting not the crumpled thing was dead</div> - <div class='line'>That was a friend, with but a skinning knife</div> - <div class='line'>He would have striven for the hated life</div> - <div class='line'>That triumphed there: but with a shriek of fright</div> - <div class='line'>The mad horse bolted through the falling night,</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie, fumbling at his rifle boot,</div> - <div class='line'>Heard the brush crash behind him where the brute</div> - <div class='line'>Came headlong, close upon the straining flanks.</div> - <div class='line'>But when at length low-lying river banks—</div> - <div class='line'>White rubble in the gloaming—glimmered near,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>A swift thought swept the mind of Jamie clear</div> - <div class='line'>Of anger and of anguish for the dead.</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce seemed the raging beast a thing to dread,</div> - <div class='line'>But some foul-playing braggart to outwit.</div> - <div class='line'>Now hurling all his strength upon the bit,</div> - <div class='line'>He sank the spurs, and with a groan of pain</div> - <div class='line'>The plunging horse, obedient to the rein,</div> - <div class='line'>Swerved sharply streamward. Sliddering in the sand,</div> - <div class='line'>The bear shot past. And suddenly the Grand</div> - <div class='line'>Loomed up beneath and rose to meet the pair</div> - <div class='line'>That rode a moment upon empty air,</div> - <div class='line'>Then smote the water in a shower of spray.</div> - <div class='line'>And when again the slowly ebbing day</div> - <div class='line'>Came back to them, a-drip from nose to flank,</div> - <div class='line'>The steed was scrambling up the further bank,</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie saw across the narrow stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Like some vague shape of fury in a dream,</div> - <div class='line'>The checked beast ramping at the water’s rim.</div> - <div class='line'>Doubt struggled with a victor’s thrill in him.</div> - <div class='line'>As, hand to buckle of the rifle-sheath,</div> - <div class='line'>He thought of dampened powder; but beneath</div> - <div class='line'>The rawhide flap the gun lay snug and dry.</div> - <div class='line'>Then as the horse wheeled and the mark went by—</div> - <div class='line'>A patch of shadow dancing upon gray—</div> - <div class='line'>He fired. A sluggish thunder trailed away;</div> - <div class='line'>The spreading smoke-rack lifted slow, and there,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>Floundering in a seethe of foam, the bear</div> - <div class='line'>Hugged yielding water for the foe that slew!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Triumphant, Jamie wondered what old Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>Would think of such a “trick of getting game”!</div> - <div class='line'>“Young eyes” indeed!—And then that memory came,</div> - <div class='line'>Like a dull blade thrust back into a wound.</div> - <div class='line'>One moment ‘twas as though the lad had swooned</div> - <div class='line'>Into a dream-adventure, waking there</div> - <div class='line'>To sicken at the ghastly land, a-stare</div> - <div class='line'>Like some familiar face gone strange at last.</div> - <div class='line'>But as the hot tears came, the moment passed.</div> - <div class='line'>Song snatches, broken tales—a troop forlorn,</div> - <div class='line'>Like merry friends of eld come back to mourn—</div> - <div class='line'>O’erwhelmed him there. And when the black bulk churned</div> - <div class='line'>The star-flecked stream no longer, Jamie turned,</div> - <div class='line'>Recrossed the river and rode back to Hugh.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A burning twist of valley grasses threw</div> - <div class='line'>Blear light about the region of the spring.</div> - <div class='line'>Then Jamie, torch aloft and shuddering,</div> - <div class='line'>Knelt there beside his friend, and moaned: “O Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>If I had been with you—just been with you!</div> - <div class='line'>We might be laughing now—and you are dead.”</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>With gentle hand he turned the hoary head</div> - <div class='line'>That he might see the good gray face again.</div> - <div class='line'>The torch burned out, the dark swooped back, and then</div> - <div class='line'>His grief was frozen with an icy plunge</div> - <div class='line'>In horror. ‘Twas as though a bloody sponge</div> - <div class='line'>Had wiped the pictured features from a slate!</div> - <div class='line'>So, pillaged by an army drunk with hate,</div> - <div class='line'>Home stares upon the homing refugee.</div> - <div class='line'>A red gout clung where either brow should be;</div> - <div class='line'>The haughty nose lay crushed amid the beard,</div> - <div class='line'>Thick with slow ooze, whence like a devil leered</div> - <div class='line'>The battered mouth convulsed into a grin.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Nor did the darkness cover, for therein</div> - <div class='line'>Some torch, unsnuffed, with blear funereal flare,</div> - <div class='line'>Still painted upon black that alien stare</div> - <div class='line'>To make the lad more terribly alone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then in the gloom there rose a broken moan,</div> - <div class='line'>Quick stifled; and it seemed that something stirred</div> - <div class='line'>About the body. Doubting that he heard,</div> - <div class='line'>The lad felt, with a panic catch of breath,</div> - <div class='line'>Pale vagrants from the legendry of death</div> - <div class='line'>Potential in the shadows there. But when</div> - <div class='line'>The motion and the moaning came again,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>Hope, like a shower at daybreak, cleansed the dark,</div> - <div class='line'>And in the lad’s heart something like a lark</div> - <div class='line'>Sang morning. Bending low, he crooned: “Hugh, Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>It’s Jamie—don’t you know?—I’m here with you.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As one who in a nightmare strives to tell—</div> - <div class='line'>Shouting across the gap of some dim hell—</div> - <div class='line'>What things assail him; so it seemed Hugh heard,</div> - <div class='line'>And flung some unintelligible word</div> - <div class='line'>Athwart the muffling distance of his swoon.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now kindled by the yet unrisen moon,</div> - <div class='line'>The East went pale; and like a naked thing</div> - <div class='line'>A little wind ran vexed and shivering</div> - <div class='line'>Along the dusk, till Jamie shivered too</div> - <div class='line'>And worried lest ‘twere bitter cold where Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>Hung clutching at the bleak, raw edge of life.</div> - <div class='line'>So Jamie rose, and with his hunting-knife</div> - <div class='line'>Split wood and built a fire. Nor did he fear</div> - <div class='line'>The staring face now, for he found it dear</div> - <div class='line'>With the warm presence of a friend returned.</div> - <div class='line'>The fire made cozy chatter as it burned,</div> - <div class='line'>And reared a tent of light in that lone place.</div> - <div class='line'>Then Jamie set about to bathe the face</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>With water from the spring, oft crooning low,</div> - <div class='line'>“It’s Jamie here beside you—don’t you know?”</div> - <div class='line'>Yet came no answer save the labored breath</div> - <div class='line'>Of one who wrestled mightily with Death</div> - <div class='line'>Where watched no referee to call the foul.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The moon now cleared the world’s end, and the owl</div> - <div class='line'>Gave voice unto the wizardry of light;</div> - <div class='line'>While in some dim-lit chancel of the night,</div> - <div class='line'>Snouts to the goddess, wolfish corybants</div> - <div class='line'>Intoned their wild antiphonary chants—</div> - <div class='line'>The oldest, saddest worship in the world.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And Jamie watched until the firelight swirled</div> - <div class='line'>Softly about him. Sound and glimmer merged</div> - <div class='line'>To make an eerie void, through which he urged</div> - <div class='line'>With frantic spur some whirlwind of a steed</div> - <div class='line'>That made the way as glass beneath his speed,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet scarce kept pace with something dear that fled</div> - <div class='line'>On, ever on—just half a dream ahead:</div> - <div class='line'>Until it seemed, by some vague shape dismayed,</div> - <div class='line'>He cried aloud for Hugh, and the steed neighed—</div> - <div class='line'>A neigh that was a burst of light, not sound.</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie, sprawling on the dewy ground,</div> - <div class='line'>Knew that his horse was sniffing at his hair,</div> - <div class='line'>While, mumbling through the early morning air,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>There came a roll of many hoofs—and then</div> - <div class='line'>He saw the swinging troop of Henry’s men</div> - <div class='line'>A-canter up the valley with the sun.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Of all Hugh’s comrades crowding round, not one</div> - <div class='line'>But would have given heavy odds on Death;</div> - <div class='line'>For, though the graybeard fought with sobbing breath,</div> - <div class='line'>No man, it seemed, might break upon the hip</div> - <div class='line'>So stern a wrestler with the strangling grip</div> - <div class='line'>That made the neck veins like a purple thong</div> - <div class='line'>Tangled with knots. Nor might Hugh tarry long</div> - <div class='line'>There where the trail forked outward far and dim;</div> - <div class='line'>Or so it seemed. And when they lifted him,</div> - <div class='line'>His moan went treble like a song of pain,</div> - <div class='line'>He was so tortured. Surely it were vain</div> - <div class='line'>To hope he might endure the toilsome ride</div> - <div class='line'>Across the barrens. Better let him bide</div> - <div class='line'>There on the grassy couch beside the spring.</div> - <div class='line'>And, furthermore, it seemed a foolish thing</div> - <div class='line'>That eighty men should wait the issue there;</div> - <div class='line'>For dying is a game of solitaire</div> - <div class='line'>And all men play the losing hand alone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But when at noon he had not ceased to moan,</div> - <div class='line'>And fought still like the strong man he had been,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>There grew a vague mistrust that he might win,</div> - <div class='line'>And all this be a tale for wondering ears.</div> - <div class='line'>So Major Henry called for volunteers,</div> - <div class='line'>Two men among the eighty who would stay</div> - <div class='line'>To wait on Glass and keep the wolves away</div> - <div class='line'>Until he did whatever he should do.</div> - <div class='line'>All quite agreed ‘twas bitter bread for Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet none, save Jamie, felt in duty bound</div> - <div class='line'>To run the risk—until the hat went round,</div> - <div class='line'>And pity wakened, at the silver’s clink,</div> - <div class='line'>In Jules Le Bon.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>‘He would not have them think</div> - <div class='line'>That mercenary motives prompted him.</div> - <div class='line'>But somehow just the grief of Little Jim</div> - <div class='line'>Was quite sufficient—not to mention Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>He weighed the risk. As everybody knew,</div> - <div class='line'>The Rickarees were scattered to the West:</div> - <div class='line'>The late campaign had stirred a hornet’s nest</div> - <div class='line'>To fill the land with stingers (which was so),</div> - <div class='line'>And yet—’</div> - <div class='line in6'>Three days a southwest wind may blow</div> - <div class='line'>False April with no drop of dew at heart.</div> - <div class='line'>So Jules ran on, while, ready for the start,</div> - <div class='line'>The pawing horses nickered and the men,</div> - <div class='line'>Impatient in their saddles, yawned. And then,</div> - <div class='line'>With brief advice, a round of bluff good-byes</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>And some few reassuring backward cries,</div> - <div class='line'>The troop rode up the valley with the day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Intent upon his friend, with naught to say,</div> - <div class='line'>Sat Jamie; while Le Bon discussed at length</div> - <div class='line'>The reasonable limits of man’s strength—</div> - <div class='line'>A self-conducted dialectic strife</div> - <div class='line'>That made absurd all argument for life</div> - <div class='line'>And granted but a fresh-dug hole for Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas half like murder. Yet it seemed Jules knew</div> - <div class='line'>Unnumbered tales accordant with the case,</div> - <div class='line'>Each circumstantial as to time and place</div> - <div class='line'>And furnished with a death’s head colophon.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Vivaciously despondent, Jules ran on.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Did he not share his judgment with the rest?</div> - <div class='line'>You see, ‘twas some contusion of the chest</div> - <div class='line'>That did the trick—heart, lungs and all that, mixed</div> - <div class='line'>In such a way they never could be fixed.</div> - <div class='line'>A bear’s hug—ugh!’</div> - <div class='line in24'>And often Jamie winced</div> - <div class='line'>At some knife-thrust of reason that convinced</div> - <div class='line'>Yet left him sick with unrelinquished hope.</div> - <div class='line'>As one who in a darkened room might grope</div> - <div class='line'>For some belovéd face, with shuddering</div> - <div class='line'>Anticipation of a clammy thing;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>So in the lad’s heart sorrow fumbled round</div> - <div class='line'>For some old joy to lean upon, and found</div> - <div class='line'>The stark, cold something Jamie knew was there.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet, womanlike, he stroked the hoary hair</div> - <div class='line'>Or bathed the face; while Jules found tales to tell—</div> - <div class='line'>Lugubriously garrulous.</div> - <div class='line in24'>Night fell.</div> - <div class='line'>At sundown, day-long winds are like to veer;</div> - <div class='line'>So, summoning a mood of relished fear,</div> - <div class='line'>Le Bon remembered dire alarms by night—</div> - <div class='line'>The swoop of savage hordes, the desperate fight</div> - <div class='line'>Of men outnumbered: and, like him of old,</div> - <div class='line'>In all that made Jules shudder as he told,</div> - <div class='line'>His the great part—a man by field and flood</div> - <div class='line'>Fate-tossed. Upon the gloom he limned in blood</div> - <div class='line'>Their situation’s possibilities:</div> - <div class='line'>Two men against the fury of the Rees—</div> - <div class='line'>A game in which two hundred men had failed!</div> - <div class='line'>He pointed out how little it availed</div> - <div class='line'>To run the risk for one as good as dead;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet, Jules Le Bon meant every word he said,</div> - <div class='line'>And had a scalp to lose, if need should be.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>That night through Jamie’s dreaming swarmed the Ree.</div> - <div class='line'>Gray-souled, he wakened to a dawn of gray,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>And felt that something strong had gone away,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor knew what thing. Some whisper of the will</div> - <div class='line'>Bade him rejoice that Hugh was living still;</div> - <div class='line'>But Hugh, the real, seemed somehow otherwhere.</div> - <div class='line'>Jules, snug and snoring in his blanket there,</div> - <div class='line'>Was half a life the nearer. Just so, pain</div> - <div class='line'>Is nearer than the peace we seek in vain,</div> - <div class='line'>And by its very sting compels belief.</div> - <div class='line'>Jules woke, and with a fine restraint of grief</div> - <div class='line'>Saw early dissolution. ‘One more night,</div> - <div class='line'>And then the poor old man would lose the fight—</div> - <div class='line'>Ah, such a man!’</div> - <div class='line in18'>A day and night crept by,</div> - <div class='line'>And yet the stubborn fighter would not die,</div> - <div class='line'>But grappled with the angel. All the while,</div> - <div class='line'>With some conviction, but with more of guile,</div> - <div class='line'>Jules colonized the vacancy with Rees;</div> - <div class='line'>Till Jamie felt that looseness of the knees</div> - <div class='line'>That comes of oozing courage. Many men</div> - <div class='line'>May tower for a white-hot moment, when</div> - <div class='line'>The wild blood surges at a sudden shock;</div> - <div class='line'>But when, insistent as a ticking clock,</div> - <div class='line'>Blind peril haunts and whispers, fewer dare.</div> - <div class='line'>Dread hovered in the hushed and moony air</div> - <div class='line'>The long night through; nor might a fire be lit,</div> - <div class='line'>Lest some far-seeing foe take note of it.</div> - <div class='line'>And day-long Jamie scanned the blank sky rim</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>For hoof-flung dust clouds; till there woke in him</div> - <div class='line'>A childish anger—dumb for ruth and shame—</div> - <div class='line'>That Hugh so dallied.</div> - <div class='line in22'>But the fourth dawn came</div> - <div class='line'>And with it lulled the fight, as on a field</div> - <div class='line'>Where broken armies sleep but will not yield.</div> - <div class='line'>Or had one conquered? Was it Hugh or Death?</div> - <div class='line'>The old man breathed with faintly fluttering breath,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor did his body shudder as before.</div> - <div class='line'>Jules triumphed sadly. ‘It would soon be o’er;</div> - <div class='line'>So men grew quiet when they lost their grip</div> - <div class='line'>And did not care. At sundown he would slip</div> - <div class='line'>Into the deeper silence.’</div> - <div class='line in26'>Jamie wept,</div> - <div class='line'>Unwitting how a furtive gladness crept</div> - <div class='line'>Into his heart that gained a stronger beat.</div> - <div class='line'>So cities, long beleaguered, take defeat—</div> - <div class='line'>Unto themselves half traitors.</div> - <div class='line in32'>Jules began</div> - <div class='line'>To dig a hole that might conceal a man;</div> - <div class='line'>And, as his sheath knife broke the stubborn sod,</div> - <div class='line'>He spoke in kindly vein of Life and God</div> - <div class='line'>And Mutability and Rectitude.</div> - <div class='line'>The immemorial funerary mood</div> - <div class='line'>Brought tears, mute tribute to the mother-dust;</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie, seeing, felt each cutting thrust</div> - <div class='line'>Less like a stab into the flesh of Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>The sun crept up and down the arc of blue</div> - <div class='line'>And through the air a chill of evening ran;</div> - <div class='line'>But, though the grave yawned, waiting for the man,</div> - <div class='line'>The man seemed scarce yet ready for the grave.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now prompted by a coward or a knave</div> - <div class='line'>That lurked in him, Le Bon began to hear</div> - <div class='line'>Faint sounds that to the lad’s less cunning ear</div> - <div class='line'>Were silence; more like tremors of the ground</div> - <div class='line'>They were, Jules said, than any proper sound—</div> - <div class='line'>Thus one detected horsemen miles away.</div> - <div class='line'>For many moments big with fate, he lay,</div> - <div class='line'>Ear pressed to earth; then rose and shook his head</div> - <div class='line'>As one perplexed. “There’s something wrong,” he said.</div> - <div class='line'>And—as at daybreak whiten winter skies,</div> - <div class='line'>Agape and staring with a wild surmise—</div> - <div class='line'>The lad’s face whitened at the other’s word.</div> - <div class='line'>Jules could not quite interpret what he heard;</div> - <div class='line'>A hundred horse might noise their whereabouts</div> - <div class='line'>In just that fashion; yet he had his doubts.</div> - <div class='line'>It could be bison moving, quite as well.</div> - <div class='line'>But if ‘twere Rees—there’d be a tale to tell</div> - <div class='line'>That two men he might name should never hear.</div> - <div class='line'>He reckoned scalps that Fall were selling dear,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>In keeping with the limited supply.</div> - <div class='line'>Men, fit to live, were not afraid to die!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then, in that caution suits not courage ill,</div> - <div class='line'>Jules saddled up and cantered to the hill,</div> - <div class='line'>A white dam set against the twilight stream;</div> - <div class='line'>And as a horseman riding in a dream</div> - <div class='line'>The lad beheld him; watched him clamber up</div> - <div class='line'>To where the dusk, as from a brimming cup,</div> - <div class='line'>Ran over; saw him pause against the gloom,</div> - <div class='line'>Portentous, huge—a brooder upon doom.</div> - <div class='line'>What did he look upon?</div> - <div class='line in24'>Some moments passed;</div> - <div class='line'>Then suddenly it seemed as though a blast</div> - <div class='line'>Of wind, keen-cutting with the whips of sleet,</div> - <div class='line'>Smote horse and rider. Haunched on huddled feet,</div> - <div class='line'>The steed shrank from the ridge, then, rearing, wheeled</div> - <div class='line'>And took the rubbly incline fury-heeled.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Those days and nights, like seasons creeping slow,</div> - <div class='line'>Had told on Jamie. Better blow on blow</div> - <div class='line'>Of evil hap, with doom seen clear ahead,</div> - <div class='line'>Than that monotonous, abrasive dread,</div> - <div class='line'>Blind gnawer at the soul-thews of the blind.</div> - <div class='line'>Thin-worn, the last heart-string that held him kind;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>Strung taut, the final tie that kept him true</div> - <div class='line'>Now snapped in Jamie, as he saw the two</div> - <div class='line'>So goaded by some terrifying sight.</div> - <div class='line'>Death riding with the vanguard of the Night,</div> - <div class='line'>Life dwindling yonder with the rear of Day!</div> - <div class='line'>What choice for one whom panic swept away</div> - <div class='line'>From moorings in the sanity of will?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Jules came and summed the vision of the hill</div> - <div class='line'>In one hoarse cry that left no word to say:</div> - <div class='line'>“Rees! Saddle up! We’ve got to get away!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Small wit had Jamie left to ferret guile,</div> - <div class='line'>But fumblingly obeyed Le Bon; the while</div> - <div class='line'>Jules knelt beside the man who could not flee:</div> - <div class='line'>For big hearts lack not time for charity</div> - <div class='line'>However thick the blows of fate may fall.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet, in that Jules Le Bon was practical,</div> - <div class='line'>He could not quite ignore a hunting knife,</div> - <div class='line'>A flint, a gun, a blanket—gear of life</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce suited to the customs of the dead!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And Hugh slept soundly in his ample bed,</div> - <div class='line'>Star-canopied and blanketed with night,</div> - <div class='line'>Unwitting how Venality and Fright</div> - <div class='line'>Made hot the westward trail of Henry’s men.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span> - <h2 class='c005'>II<br /> THE AWAKENING</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>No one may say what time elapsed, or when</div> - <div class='line'>The slumberous shadow lifted over Hugh:</div> - <div class='line'>But some globose immensity of blue</div> - <div class='line'>Enfolded him at last, within whose light</div> - <div class='line'>He seemed to float, as some faint swimmer might,</div> - <div class='line'>A deep beneath and overhead a deep.</div> - <div class='line'>So one late plunged into the lethal sleep,</div> - <div class='line'>A spirit diver fighting for his breath,</div> - <div class='line'>Swoops through the many-fathomed glooms of death,</div> - <div class='line'>Emerging in a daylight strange and new.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Rousing a languid wonder, came on Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>The quiet, steep-arched splendor of the day.</div> - <div class='line'>Agrope for some dim memory, he lay</div> - <div class='line'>Upon his back, and watched a lucent fleece</div> - <div class='line'>Fade in the blue profundity of peace</div> - <div class='line'>As did the memory he sought in vain.</div> - <div class='line'>Then with a stirring of mysterious pain,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Old habit of the body bade him rise;</div> - <div class='line'>But when he would obey, the hollow skies</div> - <div class='line'>Broke as a bubble punctured, and went out.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Again he woke, and with a drowsy doubt,</div> - <div class='line'>Remote unto his horizontal gaze</div> - <div class='line'>He saw the world’s end kindle to a blaze</div> - <div class='line'>And up the smoky steep pale heralds run.</div> - <div class='line'>And when at length he knew it for the sun,</div> - <div class='line'>Dawn found the darkling reaches of his mind,</div> - <div class='line'>Where in the twilight he began to find</div> - <div class='line'>Strewn shards and torsos of familiar things.</div> - <div class='line'>As from the rubble in a place of kings</div> - <div class='line'>Men school the dream to build the past anew,</div> - <div class='line'>So out of dream and fragment builded Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>And came upon the reason of his plight:</div> - <div class='line'>The bear’s attack—the shot—and then the night</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein men talked as ghosts above a grave.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Some consciousness of will the memory gave:</div> - <div class='line'>He would get up. The painful effort spent</div> - <div class='line'>Made the wide heavens billow as a tent</div> - <div class='line'>Wind-struck, the shaken prairie sag and roll.</div> - <div class='line'>Some moments with an effort at control</div> - <div class='line'>He swayed, half raised upon his arms, until</div> - <div class='line'>The dizzy cosmos righted, and was still.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>Then would he stand erect and be again</div> - <div class='line'>The man he was: an overwhelming pain</div> - <div class='line'>Smote him to earth, and one unruly limb</div> - <div class='line'>Refused the weight and crumpled under him.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sickened with torture he lay huddled there,</div> - <div class='line'>Gazing about him with a great despair</div> - <div class='line'>Proportioned to the might that felt the chain.</div> - <div class='line'>Far-flung as dawn, collusive sky and plain</div> - <div class='line'>Stared bleak denial back.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Why strive at all?—</div> - <div class='line'>That vacancy about him like a wall,</div> - <div class='line'>Yielding as light, a granite scarp to climb!</div> - <div class='line'>Some little waiting on the creep of time,</div> - <div class='line'>Abandonment to circumstance; and then—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Here flashed a sudden thought of Henry’s men</div> - <div class='line'>Into his mind and drove the gloom away.</div> - <div class='line'>They would be riding westward with the day!</div> - <div class='line'>How strange he had forgot! That battered leg</div> - <div class='line'>Or some scalp wound, had set his wits a-beg!</div> - <div class='line'>Was this Hugh Glass to whimper like a squaw?</div> - <div class='line'>Grimly amused, he raised his head and saw—</div> - <div class='line'>The empty distance: listened long and heard—</div> - <div class='line'>Naught but the twitter of a lonely bird</div> - <div class='line'>That emphasized the hush.</div> - <div class='line in24'>Was something wrong?</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>‘Twas not the Major’s way to dally long,</div> - <div class='line'>And surely they had camped not far behind.</div> - <div class='line'>Now woke a query in his troubled mind—</div> - <div class='line'>Where was his horse? Again came creeping back</div> - <div class='line'>The circumstances of the bear’s attack.</div> - <div class='line'>He had dismounted, thinking at the spring</div> - <div class='line'>To spend the night—and then the grisly thing—</div> - <div class='line'>Of course the horse had bolted; plain enough!</div> - <div class='line'>But why was all the soil about so rough</div> - <div class='line'>As though a herd of horses had been there?</div> - <div class='line'>The riddle vexed him till his vacant stare</div> - <div class='line'>Fell on a heap of earth beside a pit.</div> - <div class='line'>What did that mean? He wormed his way to it,</div> - <div class='line'>The newly wakened wonder dulling pain.</div> - <div class='line'>No paw of beast had scooped it—that was plain.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas squared; indeed, ‘twas like a grave, he thought.</div> - <div class='line'>A grave—a grave—the mental echo wrought</div> - <div class='line'>Sick fancies! Who had risen from the dead?</div> - <div class='line'>Who, lying there, had heard above his head</div> - <div class='line'>The ghostly talkers deaf unto his shout?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now searching all the region round about,</div> - <div class='line'>As though the answer were a lurking thing,</div> - <div class='line'>He saw along the margin of the spring</div> - <div class='line'>An ash-heap and the litter of a camp.</div> - <div class='line'>Suspicion, like a little smoky lamp</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>That daubs the murk but cannot fathom it,</div> - <div class='line'>Flung blear grotesques before his groping wit.</div> - <div class='line'>Had Rees been there? And he alive? Who then?</div> - <div class='line'>And were he dead, it might be Henry’s men!</div> - <div class='line'>How many suns had risen while he slept?</div> - <div class='line'>The smoky glow flared wildly, and he crept,</div> - <div class='line'>The dragged limb throbbing, till at length he found</div> - <div class='line'>The trail of many horses westward bound;</div> - <div class='line'>And in one breath the groping light became</div> - <div class='line'>A gloom-devouring ecstasy of flame,</div> - <div class='line'>A dazing conflagration of belief!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Plunged deeper than the seats of hate and grief,</div> - <div class='line'>He gazed about for aught that might deny</div> - <div class='line'>Such baseness: saw the non-committal sky,</div> - <div class='line'>The prairie apathetic in a shroud,</div> - <div class='line'>The bland complacence of a vagrant cloud—</div> - <div class='line'>World-wide connivance! Smilingly the sun</div> - <div class='line'>Approved a land wherein such deeds were done;</div> - <div class='line'>And careless breezes, like a troop of youth,</div> - <div class='line'>Unawed before the presence of such truth,</div> - <div class='line'>Went scampering amid the tousled brush.</div> - <div class='line'>Then bye and bye came on him with a rush</div> - <div class='line'>His weakness and the consciousness of pain,</div> - <div class='line'>While, with the chill insistence of a rain</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>That pelts the sodden wreck of Summer’s end,</div> - <div class='line'>His manifest betrayal by a friend</div> - <div class='line'>Beat in upon him. Jamie had been there;</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie—Jamie—Jamie did not care!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What no man yet had witnessed, the wide sky</div> - <div class='line'>Looked down and saw; a light wind idling by</div> - <div class='line'>Heard what no ear of mortal yet had heard:</div> - <div class='line'>For he—whose name was like a magic word</div> - <div class='line'>To conjure the remote heroic mood</div> - <div class='line'>Of valiant deed and splendid fortitude,</div> - <div class='line'>Wherever two that shared a fire might be,—</div> - <div class='line'>Gave way to grief and wept unmanfully.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet not as they for whom tears fall like dew</div> - <div class='line'>To green a frosted heart again, wept Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>So thewed to strive, so engined to prevail</div> - <div class='line'>And make harsh fate the zany of a tale,</div> - <div class='line'>His own might shook and tore him.</div> - <div class='line in36'>For a span</div> - <div class='line'>He lay, a gray old ruin of a man</div> - <div class='line'>With all his years upon him like a snow.</div> - <div class='line'>And then at length, as from the long ago,</div> - <div class='line'>Remote beyond the other side of wrong,</div> - <div class='line'>The old love came like some remembered song</div> - <div class='line'>Whereof the strain is sweet, the burden sad.</div> - <div class='line'>A retrospective vision of the lad</div> - <div class='line'>Grew up in him, as in a foggy night</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>The witchery of semilunar light</div> - <div class='line'>Mysteriously quickens all the air.</div> - <div class='line'>Some memory of wind-blown golden hair,</div> - <div class='line'>The boyish laugh, the merry eyes of blue,</div> - <div class='line'>Wrought marvelously in the heart of Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>As under snow the dæmon of the Spring.</div> - <div class='line'>And momently it seemed a little thing</div> - <div class='line'>To suffer; nor might treachery recall</div> - <div class='line'>The miracle of being loved at all,</div> - <div class='line'>The privilege of loving to the end.</div> - <div class='line'>And thereupon a longing for his friend</div> - <div class='line'>Made life once more a struggle for a prize—</div> - <div class='line'>To look again upon the merry eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>To see again the wind-blown golden hair.</div> - <div class='line'>Aye, one should lavish very tender care</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the vessel of a hope so great,</div> - <div class='line'>Lest it be shattered, and the precious freight,</div> - <div class='line'>As water on the arid waste, poured out.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet, though he longed to live, a subtle doubt</div> - <div class='line'>Still turned on him the weapon of his pain:</div> - <div class='line'>Now, as before, collusive sky and plain</div> - <div class='line'>Outstared his purpose for a puny thing.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Praying to live, he crawled back to the spring,</div> - <div class='line'>With something in his heart like gratitude</div> - <div class='line'>That by good luck his gun might furnish food,</div> - <div class='line'>His blanket, shelter, and his flint, a fire.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>For, after all, what thing do men desire</div> - <div class='line'>To be or have, but these condition it?</div> - <div class='line'>These with a purpose and a little wit,</div> - <div class='line'>And howsoever smitten, one might rise,</div> - <div class='line'>Push back the curtain of the curving skies,</div> - <div class='line'>And come upon the living dream at last.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Exhausted, by the spring he lay and cast</div> - <div class='line'>Dull eyes about him. What did it portend?</div> - <div class='line'>Naught but the footprints of a fickle friend,</div> - <div class='line'>A yawning grave and ashes met his eyes!</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce feeling yet the shock of a surprise,</div> - <div class='line'>He searched about him for his flint and knife;</div> - <div class='line'>Knew vaguely that his seeking was for life,</div> - <div class='line'>And that the place was empty where he sought.</div> - <div class='line'>No food, no fire, no shelter! Dully wrought</div> - <div class='line'>The bleak negation in him, slowly crept</div> - <div class='line'>To where, despite the pain, his love had kept</div> - <div class='line'>A shrine for Jamie undefiled of doubt.</div> - <div class='line'>Then suddenly conviction, like a shout,</div> - <div class='line'>Aroused him. Jamie—Jamie was a thief!</div> - <div class='line'>The very difficulty of belief</div> - <div class='line'>Was fuel for the simmering of rage;</div> - <div class='line'>That grew and grew, the more he strove to gage</div> - <div class='line'>The underlying motive of the deed.</div> - <div class='line'>Untempered youth might fail a friend in need;</div> - <div class='line'>But here had wrought some devil of the will,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>Some heartless thing, too cowardly to kill,</div> - <div class='line'>That left to Nature what it dared not do!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So bellowsed, all the kindled soul of Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>Became a still white hell of brooding ire,</div> - <div class='line'>And through his veins regenerating fire</div> - <div class='line'>Ran, driving out the lethargy of pain.</div> - <div class='line'>Now once again he scanned the yellow plain,</div> - <div class='line'>Conspirant with the overbending skies;</div> - <div class='line'>And lo, the one was blue as Jamie’s eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>The other of the color of his hair—</div> - <div class='line'>Twin hues of falseness merging to a stare,</div> - <div class='line'>As though such guilt, thus visibly immense,</div> - <div class='line'>Regarded its effect with insolence!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Alas for those who fondly place above</div> - <div class='line'>The act of loving, what they chance to love;</div> - <div class='line'>Who prize the goal more dearly than the way!</div> - <div class='line'>For time shall plunder them, and change betray,</div> - <div class='line'>And life shall find them vulnerable still.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A bitter-sweet narcotic to the will,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh’s love increased the peril of his plight;</div> - <div class='line'>But anger broke the slumber of his might,</div> - <div class='line'>Quickened the heart and warmed the blood that ran</div> - <div class='line'>Defiance for the treachery of Man,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>Defiance for the meaning of his pain,</div> - <div class='line'>Defiance for the distance of the plain</div> - <div class='line'>That seemed to gloat, ‘You can not master me.’</div> - <div class='line'>And for one burning moment he felt free</div> - <div class='line'>To rise and conquer in a wind of rage.</div> - <div class='line'>But as a tiger, conscious of the cage,</div> - <div class='line'>A-smoulder with a purpose, broods and waits,</div> - <div class='line'>So with the sullen patience that is hate’s</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh taught his wrath to bide expedience.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now cognizant of every quickened sense,</div> - <div class='line'>Thirst came upon him. Leaning to the spring,</div> - <div class='line'>He stared with fascination on a thing</div> - <div class='line'>That rose from giddy deeps to share the draught—</div> - <div class='line'>A face, it was, so tortured that it laughed,</div> - <div class='line'>A ghastly mask that Murder well might wear;</div> - <div class='line'>And while as one they drank together there,</div> - <div class='line'>It was as though the deed he meant to do</div> - <div class='line'>Took shape and came to kiss the lips of Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>Lest that revenge might falter. Hunger woke;</div> - <div class='line'>And from the bush with leafage gray as smoke,</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein like flame the bullberries glinted red</div> - <div class='line'>(Scarce sweeter than the heart of him they fed),</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh feasted.</div> - <div class='line in16'>And the hours of waiting crept,</div> - <div class='line'>A-gloom, a-glow; and though he waked or slept,</div> - <div class='line'>The pondered purpose or a dream that wrought,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>By night, the murder of his waking thought,</div> - <div class='line'>Sustained him till he felt his strength returned.</div> - <div class='line'>And then at length the longed-for morning burned</div> - <div class='line'>And beckoned down the vast way he should crawl—</div> - <div class='line'>That waste to be surmounted as a wall,</div> - <div class='line'>Sky-rims and yet more sky-rims steep to climb—</div> - <div class='line'>That simulacrum of enduring Time—</div> - <div class='line'>The hundred empty miles ‘twixt him and where</div> - <div class='line'>The stark Missouri ran!</div> - <div class='line in28'>Yet why not dare?</div> - <div class='line'>Despite the useless leg, he could not die</div> - <div class='line'>One hairsbreadth farther from the earth and sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Or more remote from kindness.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span> - <h2 class='c005'>III<br /> THE CRAWL</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in32'>Straight away</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath the flare of dawn, the Ree land lay,</div> - <div class='line'>And through it ran the short trail to the goal.</div> - <div class='line'>Thereon a grim turnpikeman waited toll:</div> - <div class='line'>But ‘twas so doomed that southering geese should flee</div> - <div class='line'>Nine times, ere yet the vengeance of the Ree</div> - <div class='line'>Should make their foe the haunter of a tale.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Midway to safety on the northern trail</div> - <div class='line'>The scoriac region of a hell burned black</div> - <div class='line'>Forbade the crawler. And for all his lack,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh had no heart to journey with the suns:</div> - <div class='line'>No suppliant unto those faithless ones</div> - <div class='line'>Should bid for pity at the Big Horn’s mouth.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The greater odds for safety in the South</div> - <div class='line'>Allured him; so he felt the midday sun</div> - <div class='line'>Blaze down the coulee of a little run</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>That dwindled upward to the watershed</div> - <div class='line'>Whereon the feeders of the Moreau head—</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce more than deep-carved runes of vernal rain.</div> - <div class='line'>The trailing leg was like a galling chain,</div> - <div class='line'>And bound him to a doubt that would not pass.</div> - <div class='line'>Defiant clumps of thirst-embittered grass</div> - <div class='line'>That bit parched earth with bared and fang-like roots;</div> - <div class='line'>Dwarf thickets, jealous for their stunted fruits,</div> - <div class='line'>Harsh-tempered by their disinheritance—</div> - <div class='line'>These symbolized the enmity of Chance</div> - <div class='line'>For him who, with his fate unreconciled,</div> - <div class='line'>Equipped for travel as a weanling child,</div> - <div class='line'>Essayed the journey of a mighty man.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Like agitated oil the heat-waves ran</div> - <div class='line'>And made the scabrous gulch appear to shake</div> - <div class='line'>As some reflected landscape in a lake</div> - <div class='line'>Where laggard breezes move. A taunting reek</div> - <div class='line'>Rose from the grudging seepage of the creek,</div> - <div class='line'>Whereof Hugh drank and drank, and still would drink.</div> - <div class='line'>And where the mottled shadow dripped as ink</div> - <div class='line'>From scanty thickets on the yellow glare,</div> - <div class='line'>The crawler faltered with no heart to dare</div> - <div class='line'>Again the torture of that toil, until</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>The master-thought of vengeance ‘woke the will</div> - <div class='line'>To goad him forth. And when the sun quiesced</div> - <div class='line'>Amid ironic heavens in the West—</div> - <div class='line'>The region of false friends—Hugh gained a rise</div> - <div class='line'>Whence to the fading cincture of the skies</div> - <div class='line'>A purpling panorama swept away.</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce farther than a shout might carry, lay</div> - <div class='line'>The place of his betrayal. He could see</div> - <div class='line'>The yellow blotch of earth where treachery</div> - <div class='line'>Had digged his grave. O futile wrath and toil!</div> - <div class='line'>Tucked in beneath yon coverlet of soil,</div> - <div class='line'>Turned back for him, how soundly had he slept!</div> - <div class='line'>Fool, fool! to struggle when he might have crept</div> - <div class='line'>So short a space, yet farther than the flight</div> - <div class='line'>Of swiftest dreaming through the longest night,</div> - <div class='line'>Into the quiet house of no false friend.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Alas for those who seek a journey’s end—</div> - <div class='line'>They have it ever with them like a ghost:</div> - <div class='line'>Nor shall they find, who deem they seek it most,</div> - <div class='line'>But crave the end of human ends—as Hugh.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now swoopingly the world of dream broke through</div> - <div class='line'>The figured wall of sense. It seemed he ran</div> - <div class='line'>As wind above the creeping ways of man,</div> - <div class='line'>And came upon the place of his desire,</div> - <div class='line'>Where burned, far-luring as a beacon-fire,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>The face of Jamie. But the vengeful stroke</div> - <div class='line'>Bit air. The darkness lifted like a smoke—</div> - <div class='line'>And it was early morning.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Gazing far,</div> - <div class='line'>From where the West yet kept a pallid star</div> - <div class='line'>To thinner sky where dawn was wearing through,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh shrank with dread, reluctant to renew</div> - <div class='line'>The war with that serene antagonist.</div> - <div class='line'>More fearsome than a smashing iron fist</div> - <div class='line'>Seemed that vast negativity of might;</div> - <div class='line'>Until the frustrate vision of the night</div> - <div class='line'>Came moonwise on the gloom of his despair.</div> - <div class='line'>And lo, the foe was naught but yielding air,</div> - <div class='line'>A vacancy to fill with his intent!</div> - <div class='line'>So from his spacious bed he ‘rose and went</div> - <div class='line'>Three-footed; and the vision goaded him.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All morning southward to the bare sky rim</div> - <div class='line'>The rugged coulee zigzagged, mounting slow;</div> - <div class='line'>And ever as it ‘rose, the lean creek’s flow</div> - <div class='line'>Dwindled and dwindled steadily, until</div> - <div class='line'>At last a scooped-out basin would not fill;</div> - <div class='line'>And thenceforth ‘twas a way of mocking dust.</div> - <div class='line'>But, in that Hugh still kept the driving lust</div> - <div class='line'>For vengeance, this new circumstance of fate</div> - <div class='line'>Served but to brew more venom for his hate,</div> - <div class='line'>And nerved him to avail the most with least.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>Ere noon the crawler chanced upon a feast</div> - <div class='line'>Of breadroot sunning in a favored draw.</div> - <div class='line'>A sentry gopher from his stronghold saw</div> - <div class='line'>Some three-legged beast, bear-like, yet not a bear,</div> - <div class='line'>With quite misguided fury digging where</div> - <div class='line'>No hapless brother gopher might be found.</div> - <div class='line'>And while, with stripéd nose above his mound,</div> - <div class='line'>The sentinel chirped shrilly to his clan</div> - <div class='line'>Scare-tales of that anomaly, the man</div> - <div class='line'>Devoured the chance-flung manna of the plains</div> - <div class='line'>That some vague reminiscence of old rains</div> - <div class='line'>Kept succulent, despite the burning drouth.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So with new vigor Hugh assailed the South,</div> - <div class='line'>His pockets laden with the precious roots</div> - <div class='line'>Against that coming traverse, where no fruits</div> - <div class='line'>Of herb or vine or shrub might brave the land</div> - <div class='line'>Spread rooflike ‘twixt the Moreau and the Grand.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The coulee deepened; yellow walls flung high,</div> - <div class='line'>Sheer to the ragged strip of blinding sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Dazzled and sweltered in the glare of day.</div> - <div class='line'>Capricious draughts that woke and died away</div> - <div class='line'>Into the heavy drowse, were breatht as flame.</div> - <div class='line'>And midway down the afternoon, Hugh came</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a little patch of spongy ground.</div> - <div class='line'>His thirst became a rage. He gazed around,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>Seeking a spring; but all about was dry</div> - <div class='line'>As strewn bones bleaching to a desert sky;</div> - <div class='line'>Nor did a clawed hole, bought with needed strength,</div> - <div class='line'>Return a grateful ooze. And when at length</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh sucked the mud, he spat it in disgust.</div> - <div class='line'>It had the acrid tang of broken trust,</div> - <div class='line'>The sweetish, tepid taste of feigning love!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Still hopeful of a spring somewhere above,</div> - <div class='line'>He crawled the faster for his taunted thirst.</div> - <div class='line'>More damp spots, no less grudging than the first,</div> - <div class='line'>Occurred with growing frequence on the way,</div> - <div class='line'>Until amid the purple wane of day</div> - <div class='line'>The crawler came upon a little pool!</div> - <div class='line'>Clear as a friend’s heart, ‘twas, and seeming cool—</div> - <div class='line'>A crystal bowl whence skyey deeps looked up.</div> - <div class='line'>So might a god set down his drinking cup</div> - <div class='line'>Charged with a distillation of haut skies.</div> - <div class='line'>As famished horses, thrusting to the eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Parched muzzles, take a long-sought water-hole,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh plunged his head into the brimming bowl</div> - <div class='line'>As though to share the joy with every sense.</div> - <div class='line'>And lo, the tang of that wide insolence</div> - <div class='line'>Of sky and plain was acrid in the draught!</div> - <div class='line'>How ripplingly the lying water laughed!</div> - <div class='line'>How like fine sentiment the mirrored sky</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>Won credence for a sink of alkali!</div> - <div class='line'>So with false friends. And yet, as may accrue</div> - <div class='line'>From specious love some profit of the true,</div> - <div class='line'>One gift of kindness had the tainted sink.</div> - <div class='line'>Stripped of his clothes, Hugh let his body drink</div> - <div class='line'>At every thirsting pore. Through trunk and limb</div> - <div class='line'>The elemental blessing solaced him;</div> - <div class='line'>Nor did he rise till, vague with stellar light,</div> - <div class='line'>The lone gulch, buttressing an arch of night,</div> - <div class='line'>Was like a temple to the Holy Ghost.</div> - <div class='line'>As priests in slow procession with the Host,</div> - <div class='line'>A gusty breeze intoned—now low, now loud,</div> - <div class='line'>And now, as to the murmur of a crowd,</div> - <div class='line'>Yielding the dim-torched wonder of the nave.</div> - <div class='line'>Aloft along the dusky architrave</div> - <div class='line'>The wander-tale of drifting stars evolved;</div> - <div class='line'>And Hugh lay gazing till the whole resolved</div> - <div class='line'>Into a haze.</div> - <div class='line in14'>It seemed that Little Jim</div> - <div class='line'>Had come to share a merry fire with him,</div> - <div class='line'>And there had been no trouble ‘twixt the two.</div> - <div class='line'>And Jamie listened eagerly while Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>Essayed a tangled tale of bears and men,</div> - <div class='line'>Bread-root and stars. But ever now and then</div> - <div class='line'>The shifting smoke-cloud dimmed the golden hair,</div> - <div class='line'>The leal blue eyes; until with sudden flare</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>The flame effaced them utterly—and lo,</div> - <div class='line'>The gulch bank-full with morning!</div> - <div class='line in34'>Loath to go,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh lay beside the pool and pondered fate.</div> - <div class='line'>He saw his age-long pilgrimage of hate</div> - <div class='line'>Stretch out—a fool’s trail; and it made him cringe;</div> - <div class='line'>For still amid the nightly vision’s fringe</div> - <div class='line'>His dull wit strayed, companioned with regret.</div> - <div class='line'>But when the sun, a tilted cauldron set</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the gulch rim, poured a blaze of day,</div> - <div class='line'>He rose and bathed again, and went his way,</div> - <div class='line'>Sustaining wrath returning with the toil.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>At noon the gulch walls, hewn in lighter soil,</div> - <div class='line'>Fell back; and coulees dense with shrub and vine</div> - <div class='line'>Climbed zigzag to the sharp horizon line,</div> - <div class='line'>Whence one might choose the pilotage of crows.</div> - <div class='line'>He labored upward through the noonday doze.</div> - <div class='line'>Of breathless shade, where plums were turning red</div> - <div class='line'>In tangled bowers, and grapevines overhead</div> - <div class='line'>Purpled with fruit to taunt the crawler’s thirst.</div> - <div class='line'>With little effort Hugh attained the first;</div> - <div class='line'>The latter bargained sharply ere they sold</div> - <div class='line'>Their luscious clusters for the hoarded gold</div> - <div class='line'>Of strength that had so very much to buy.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>Now, having feasted, it was sweet to lie</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath a sun-proof canopy; and sleep</div> - <div class='line'>Came swiftly.</div> - <div class='line in16'>Hugh awakened to some deep</div> - <div class='line'>Star-snuffing well of night. Awhile he lay</div> - <div class='line'>And wondered what had happened to the day</div> - <div class='line'>And where he was and what were best to do.</div> - <div class='line'>But when, fog-like, the drowse dispersed, he knew</div> - <div class='line'>How from the rim above the plain stretched far</div> - <div class='line'>To where the evening and the morning are,</div> - <div class='line'>And that ‘twere better he should crawl by night,</div> - <div class='line'>Sleep out the glare. With groping hands for sight,</div> - <div class='line'>Skyward along the broken steep he crawled,</div> - <div class='line'>And saw at length, immense and purple-walled—</div> - <div class='line'>Or sensed—the dusky mystery of plain.</div> - <div class='line'>Gazing aloft, he found the capsized Wain</div> - <div class='line'>In mid-plunge down the polar steep. Thereto</div> - <div class='line'>He set his back; and far ahead there grew,</div> - <div class='line'>As some pale blossom from a darkling root,</div> - <div class='line'>The star-blanched summit of a lonely butte,</div> - <div class='line'>And thitherward he dragged his heavy limb.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It seemed naught moved. Time hovered over him,</div> - <div class='line'>An instant of incipient endeavor.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas ever thus, and should be thus forever—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>This groping for the same armful of space,</div> - <div class='line'>An insubstantial essence of one place,</div> - <div class='line'>Extentless on a weird frontier of sleep.</div> - <div class='line'>Sheer deep upon unfathomable deep</div> - <div class='line'>The flood of dusk bore down without a sound,</div> - <div class='line'>As ocean on the spirits of the drowned</div> - <div class='line'>Awakened headlong leagues beneath the light.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So lapsed the drowsy æon of the night—</div> - <div class='line'>A strangely tensile moment in a trance.</div> - <div class='line'>And then, as quickened to somnambulance,</div> - <div class='line'>The heavens, imperceptibly in motion,</div> - <div class='line'>Were altered as the upward deeps of ocean</div> - <div class='line'>Diluted with a seepage of the moon.</div> - <div class='line'>The butte-top, late a gossamer balloon</div> - <div class='line'>In mid-air tethered hovering, grew down</div> - <div class='line'>And rooted in a blear expanse of brown,</div> - <div class='line'>That, lifting slowly with the ebb of night,</div> - <div class='line'>Took on the harsh solidity of light—</div> - <div class='line'>And day was on the prairie like a flame.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Scarce had he munched the hoarded roots, when came</div> - <div class='line'>A vertigo of slumber. Snatchy dreams</div> - <div class='line'>Of sick pools, inaccessible cool streams,</div> - <div class='line'>Lured on through giddy vacancies of heat</div> - <div class='line'>In swooping flights; now hills of roasting meat</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>Made savory the oven of the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet kept remote peripheries and whirled</div> - <div class='line'>About a burning center that was Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>Then all were gone, save one, and it turned blue</div> - <div class='line'>And was a heap of cool and luscious fruit,</div> - <div class='line'>Until at length he knew it for the butte</div> - <div class='line'>Now mantled with a weaving of the gloam.</div> - <div class='line in2'>It was the hour when cattle straggle home.</div> - <div class='line'>Across the clearing in a hush of sleep</div> - <div class='line'>They saunter, lowing; loiter belly-deep</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the lush grass by the meadow stream.</div> - <div class='line'>How like the sound of water in a dream</div> - <div class='line'>The intermittent tinkle of yon bell.</div> - <div class='line'>A windlass creaks contentment from a well,</div> - <div class='line'>And cool deeps gurgle as the bucket sinks.</div> - <div class='line'>Now blowing at the trough the plow-team drinks;</div> - <div class='line'>The shaken harness rattles. Sleepy quails</div> - <div class='line'>Call far. The warm milk hisses in the pails</div> - <div class='line'>There in the dusky barn-lot. Crickets cry.</div> - <div class='line'>The meadow twinkles with the glowing fly.</div> - <div class='line'>One hears the horses munching at their oats.</div> - <div class='line'>The green grows black. A veil of slumber floats</div> - <div class='line'>Across the haunts of home-enamored men.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Some freak of memory brought back again</div> - <div class='line'>The boyhood world of sight and scent and sound:</div> - <div class='line'>It perished, and the prairie ringed him round,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>Blank as the face of fate. In listless mood</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh set his face against the solitude</div> - <div class='line'>And met the night. The new moon, low and far,</div> - <div class='line'>A frail cup tilted, nor the high-swung star,</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed, might glint on any stream or spring</div> - <div class='line'>Or touch with silver any toothsome thing.</div> - <div class='line'>The kiote voiced the universal lack.</div> - <div class='line'>As from a nether fire, the plain gave back</div> - <div class='line'>The swelter of the noon-glare to the gloom.</div> - <div class='line'>In the hot hush Hugh heard his temples boom.</div> - <div class='line'>Thirst tortured. Motion was a languid pain.</div> - <div class='line'>Why seek some further nowhere on the plain?</div> - <div class='line'>Here might the kiotes feast as well as there.</div> - <div class='line'>So spoke some loose-lipped spirit of despair;</div> - <div class='line'>And still Hugh moved, volitionless—a weight</div> - <div class='line'>Submissive to that now unconscious hate,</div> - <div class='line'>As darkling water to the hidden moon.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Now when the night wore on in middle swoon,</div> - <div class='line'>The crawler, roused from stupor, was aware</div> - <div class='line'>Of some strange alteration in the air.</div> - <div class='line'>To breathe became an act of conscious will.</div> - <div class='line'>The starry waste was ominously still.</div> - <div class='line'>The far-off kiote’s yelp came sharp and clear</div> - <div class='line'>As through a tunnel in the atmosphere—</div> - <div class='line'>A ponderable, resonating mass.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>The limp leg dragging on the sun-dried grass</div> - <div class='line'>Produced a sound unnaturally loud.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Crouched, panting, Hugh looked up but saw no cloud.</div> - <div class='line'>An oily film seemed spread upon the sky</div> - <div class='line'>Now dully staring as the open eye</div> - <div class='line'>Of one in fever. Gasping, choked with thirst,</div> - <div class='line'>A childish rage assailed Hugh, and he cursed:</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas like a broken spirit’s outcry, tossed</div> - <div class='line'>Upon hell’s burlesque sabbath for the lost,</div> - <div class='line'>And briefly space seemed crowded with the voice.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To wait and die, to move and die—what choice?</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh chose not, yet he crawled; though more and more</div> - <div class='line'>He felt the futile strife was nearly o’er.</div> - <div class='line'>And as he went, a muffled rumbling grew,</div> - <div class='line'>More felt than heard; for long it puzzled Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>Somehow ‘twas coextensive with his thirst,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet boundless; swollen blood-veins ere they burst</div> - <div class='line'>Might give such warning, so he thought. And still</div> - <div class='line'>The drone seemed heaping up a phonic hill</div> - <div class='line'>That towered in a listening profound.</div> - <div class='line'>Then suddenly a mountain peak of sound</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>Came toppling to a heaven-jolting fall!</div> - <div class='line'>The prairie shuddered, and a raucous drawl</div> - <div class='line'>Ran far and perished in the outer deep.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As one too roughly shaken out of sleep,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh stared bewildered. Still the face of night</div> - <div class='line'>Remained the same, save where upon his right</div> - <div class='line'>The moon had vanished ‘neath the prairie rim.</div> - <div class='line'>Then suddenly the meaning came to him.</div> - <div class='line'>He turned and saw athwart the northwest sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Like some black eyelid shutting on an eye,</div> - <div class='line'>A coming night to which the night was day!</div> - <div class='line'>Star-hungry, ranged in regular array,</div> - <div class='line'>The lifting mass assailed the Dragon’s lair,</div> - <div class='line'>Submerged the region of the hounded Bear,</div> - <div class='line'>Out-topped the tall Ox-Driver and the Pole.</div> - <div class='line'>And all the while there came a low-toned roll,</div> - <div class='line'>Less sound in air than tremor in the earth,</div> - <div class='line'>From where, like flame upon a windy hearth,</div> - <div class='line'>Deep in the further murk sheet-lightning flared.</div> - <div class='line'>And still the southern arc of heaven stared,</div> - <div class='line'>A half-shut eye, near blind with fever rheum;</div> - <div class='line'>And still the plain lay tranquil as a tomb</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein the dead reck not a menaced world.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What turmoil now? Lo, ragged columns hurled</div> - <div class='line'>Pell-mell up stellar slopes! Swift blue fires leap</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>Above the wild assailants of the steep!</div> - <div class='line'>Along the solid rear a dull boom runs!</div> - <div class='line'>So light horse squadrons charge beneath the guns.</div> - <div class='line'>Now once again the night is deathly still.</div> - <div class='line'>What ghastly peace upon the zenith hill,</div> - <div class='line'>No longer starry? Not a sound is heard.</div> - <div class='line'>So poised the hush, it seems a whispered word</div> - <div class='line'>Might loose all noises in an avalanche.</div> - <div class='line'>Only the black mass moves, and far glooms blanch</div> - <div class='line'>With fitful flashes. The capricious flare</div> - <div class='line'>Reveals the butte-top tall and lonely there</div> - <div class='line'>Like some gray prophet contemplating doom.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But hark! What spirits whisper in the gloom?</div> - <div class='line'>What sibilation of conspiracies</div> - <div class='line'>Ruffles the hush—or murmuring of trees,</div> - <div class='line'>Ghosts of the ancient forest—or old rain,</div> - <div class='line'>In some hallucination of the plain,</div> - <div class='line'>A frustrate phantom mourning? All around,</div> - <div class='line'>That e’er evolving, ne’er resolving sound</div> - <div class='line'>Gropes in the stifling hollow of the night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then—once—twice—thrice—a blade of blinding light</div> - <div class='line'>Ripped up the heavens, and the deluge came—</div> - <div class='line'>A burst of wind and water, noise and flame</div> - <div class='line'>That hurled the watcher flat upon the ground.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>A moment past Hugh famished; now, half drowned,</div> - <div class='line'>He gasped for breath amid the hurtling drench.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So might a testy god, long sought to quench</div> - <div class='line'>A puny thirst, pour wassail, hurling after</div> - <div class='line'>The crashing bowl with wild sardonic laughter</div> - <div class='line'>To see man wrestle with his answered prayer!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Prone to the roaring flaw and ceaseless flare,</div> - <div class='line'>The man drank deeply with the drinking grass;</div> - <div class='line'>Until it seemed the storm would never pass</div> - <div class='line'>But ravin down the painted murk for aye.</div> - <div class='line'>When had what dreamer seen a glaring day</div> - <div class='line'>And leagues of prairie pantingly aquiver?</div> - <div class='line'>Flame, flood, wind, noise and darkness were a river</div> - <div class='line'>Tearing a cosmic channel to no sea.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The tortured night wore on; then suddenly</div> - <div class='line'>Peace fell. Remotely the retreating Wrath</div> - <div class='line'>Trailed dull, reluctant thunders in its path,</div> - <div class='line'>And up along a broken stair of cloud</div> - <div class='line'>The Dawn came creeping whitely. Like a shroud</div> - <div class='line'>Gray vapors clung along the sodden plain.</div> - <div class='line'>Up rose the sun to wipe the final stain</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>Of fury from the sky and drink the mist.</div> - <div class='line'>Against a flawless arch of amethyst</div> - <div class='line'>The butte soared, like a soul serene and white</div> - <div class='line'>Because of the katharsis of the night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All day Hugh fought with sleep and struggled on</div> - <div class='line'>Southeastward; for the heavy heat was gone</div> - <div class='line'>Despite the naked sun. The blank Northwest</div> - <div class='line'>Breathed coolly; and the crawler thought it best</div> - <div class='line'>To move while yet each little break and hollow</div> - <div class='line'>And shallow basin of the bison-wallow</div> - <div class='line'>Begrudged the earth and air its dwindling store.</div> - <div class='line'>But now that thirst was conquered, more and more</div> - <div class='line'>He felt the gnaw of hunger like a rage.</div> - <div class='line'>And once, from dozing in a clump of sage,</div> - <div class='line'>A lone jackrabbit bounded. As a flame</div> - <div class='line'>Hope flared in Hugh, until the memory came</div> - <div class='line'>Of him who robbed a sleeping friend and fled.</div> - <div class='line'>Then hate and hunger merged; the man saw red,</div> - <div class='line'>And momently the hare and Little Jim</div> - <div class='line'>Were one blurred mark for murder unto him—</div> - <div class='line'>Elusive, taunting, sweet to clutch and tear.</div> - <div class='line'>The rabbit paused to scan the crippled bear</div> - <div class='line'>That ground its teeth as though it chewed a root.</div> - <div class='line'>But when, in witless rage, Hugh drew his boot</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>And hurled it with a curse, the hare loped off,</div> - <div class='line'>Its critic ears turned back, as though to scoff</div> - <div class='line'>At silly brutes that threw their legs away.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Night like a shadow on enduring day</div> - <div class='line'>Swooped by. The dream of crawling and the act</div> - <div class='line'>Were phases of one everlasting fact:</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh woke, and he was doing what he dreamed.</div> - <div class='line'>The butte, outstripped at eventide, now seemed</div> - <div class='line'>Intent to follow. Ever now and then</div> - <div class='line'>The crawler paused to calculate again</div> - <div class='line'>What dear-bought yawn of distance dwarfed the hill.</div> - <div class='line'>Close in the rear it soared, a Titan still,</div> - <div class='line'>Whose hand-in-pocket saunter kept the pace.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Distinct along the southern rim of space</div> - <div class='line'>A low ridge lay, the crest of the divide.</div> - <div class='line'>What rest and plenty on the other side!</div> - <div class='line'>Through what lush valleys ran what crystal brooks!</div> - <div class='line'>And there in virgin meadows wayside nooks</div> - <div class='line'>With leaf and purple cluster dulled the light!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All day it seemed that distant Pisgah Height</div> - <div class='line'>Retreated, and the tall butte dogged the rear.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>At eve a stripéd gopher chirping near</div> - <div class='line'>Gave Hugh an inspiration. Now, at least,</div> - <div class='line'>No thieving friend should rob him of a feast.</div> - <div class='line'>His great idea stirred him as a shout.</div> - <div class='line'>Off came a boot, a sock was ravelled out.</div> - <div class='line'>The coarse yarn, fashioned to a running snare,</div> - <div class='line'>He placed about the gopher’s hole with care,</div> - <div class='line'>And then withdrew to hold the yarn and wait.</div> - <div class='line'>The night-bound moments, ponderous with fate,</div> - <div class='line'>Crept slowly by. The battered gray face leered</div> - <div class='line'>In expectation. Down the grizzled beard</div> - <div class='line'>Ran slaver from anticipating jaws.</div> - <div class='line'>Evolving twilight hovered to a pause.</div> - <div class='line'>The light wind fell. Again and yet again</div> - <div class='line'>The man devoured his fancied prey: and then</div> - <div class='line'>Within the noose a timid snout was thrust.</div> - <div class='line'>His hand unsteadied with the hunger lust,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh jerked the yarn. It broke.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>Down swooped the night,</div> - <div class='line'>A shadow of despair. Bleak height on height,</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed, a sheer abyss enclosed him round.</div> - <div class='line'>Clutching a strand of yarn, he heard the sound</div> - <div class='line'>Of some infernal turmoil under him.</div> - <div class='line'>Grimly he strove to reach the ragged rim</div> - <div class='line'>That snared a star, until the skyey space</div> - <div class='line'>Was darkened with a roof of Jamie’s face,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>And then the yarn was broken, and he fell.</div> - <div class='line'>A-tumble like a stricken bat, his yell</div> - <div class='line'>Woke hordes of laughers down the giddy yawn</div> - <div class='line'>Of that black pit—and suddenly ‘twas dawn.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Dream-dawn, dream-noon, dream-twilight! Yet, possest</div> - <div class='line'>By one stern dream more clamorous than the rest,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh headed for a gap that notched the hills,</div> - <div class='line'>Wherethrough a luring murmur of cool rills,</div> - <div class='line'>A haunting smell of verdure seemed to creep.</div> - <div class='line'>By fits the wild adventure of his sleep</div> - <div class='line'>Became the cause of all his waking care,</div> - <div class='line'>And he complained unto the empty air</div> - <div class='line'>How Jamie broke the yarn.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in30'>The sun and breeze</div> - <div class='line'>Had drunk all shallow basins to the lees,</div> - <div class='line'>But now and then some gully, choked with mud,</div> - <div class='line'>Retained a turbid relict of the flood.</div> - <div class='line'>Dream-dawn, dream-noon, dream-night! And still obsessed</div> - <div class='line'>By that one dream more clamorous than the rest,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh struggled for the crest of the divide.</div> - <div class='line'>And when at length he saw the other side,</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas but a rumpled waste of yellow hills!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>The deep-sunk, wiser self had known the rills</div> - <div class='line'>And nooks to be the facture of a whim;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet had the pleasant lie befriended him,</div> - <div class='line'>And now the brutal fact had come to stare.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Succumbing to a languorous despair,</div> - <div class='line'>He mourned his fate with childish uncontrol</div> - <div class='line'>And nursed that deadly adder of the soul,</div> - <div class='line'>Self-pity. Let the crows swoop down and feed,</div> - <div class='line'>Aye, batten on a thing that died of need,</div> - <div class='line'>A poor old wretch betrayed of God and Man!</div> - <div class='line'>So peevishly his broken musing ran,</div> - <div class='line'>Till, glutted with the luxury of woe,</div> - <div class='line'>He turned to see the butte, that he might know</div> - <div class='line'>How little all his striving could avail</div> - <div class='line'>Against ill-luck. And lo, a finger-nail,</div> - <div class='line'>At arm-length held, could blot it out of space!</div> - <div class='line'>A goading purpose and a creeping pace</div> - <div class='line'>Had dwarfed the Titan in a haze of blue!</div> - <div class='line'>And suddenly new power came to Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>With gazing on his masterpiece of will.</div> - <div class='line'>So fare the wise on Pisgah.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in28'>Down the hill,</div> - <div class='line'>Unto the higher vision consecrate,</div> - <div class='line'>Now sallied forth the new triumvirate—</div> - <div class='line'>A Weariness, a Hunger and a Glory—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>Against tyrannic Chance. As in a story</div> - <div class='line'>Some higher Hugh observed the baser part.</div> - <div class='line'>So sits the artist throned above his art,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor recks the travail so the end be fair.</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed the wrinkled hills pressed in to stare,</div> - <div class='line'>The arch of heaven was an eye a-gaze.</div> - <div class='line'>And as Hugh went, he fashioned many a phrase</div> - <div class='line'>For use when, by some friendly ember-light,</div> - <div class='line'>His tale of things endured should speed the night</div> - <div class='line'>And all this gloom grow golden in the sharing.</div> - <div class='line'>So wrought the old evangel of high daring,</div> - <div class='line'>The duty and the beauty of endeavor,</div> - <div class='line'>The privilege of going on forever,</div> - <div class='line'>A victor in the moment.</div> - <div class='line in24'>Ah, but when</div> - <div class='line'>The night slipped by and morning came again,</div> - <div class='line'>The sky and hill were only sky and hill</div> - <div class='line'>And crawling but an agony of will.</div> - <div class='line'>So once again the old triumvirate,</div> - <div class='line'>A buzzard Hunger and a viper Hate</div> - <div class='line'>Together with the baser part of Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>Went visionless.</div> - <div class='line in18'>That day the wild geese flew,</div> - <div class='line'>Vague in a gray profundity of sky;</div> - <div class='line'>And on into the night their muffled cry</div> - <div class='line'>Haunted the moonlight like a far farewell.</div> - <div class='line'>It made Hugh homesick, though he could not tell</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>For what he yearned; and in his fitful sleeping</div> - <div class='line'>The cry became the sound of Jamie weeping,</div> - <div class='line'>Immeasurably distant.</div> - <div class='line in22'>Morning broke,</div> - <div class='line'>Blear, chilly, through a fog that drove as smoke</div> - <div class='line'>Before the booming Northwest. Sweet and sad</div> - <div class='line'>Came creeping back old visions of the lad—</div> - <div class='line'>Some trick of speech, some merry little lilt,</div> - <div class='line'>The brooding blue of eyes too clear for guilt,</div> - <div class='line'>The wind-blown golden hair. Hate slept that day,</div> - <div class='line'>And half of Hugh was half a life away,</div> - <div class='line'>A wandering spirit wistful of the past;</div> - <div class='line'>And half went drifting with the autumn blast</div> - <div class='line'>That mourned among the melancholy hills;</div> - <div class='line'>For something of the lethargy that kills</div> - <div class='line'>Came creeping close upon the ebb of hate.</div> - <div class='line'>Only the raw wind, like the lash of Fate,</div> - <div class='line'>Could have availed to move him any more.</div> - <div class='line'>At last the buzzard beak no longer tore</div> - <div class='line'>His vitals, and he ceased to think of food.</div> - <div class='line'>The fighter slumbered, and a maudlin mood</div> - <div class='line'>Foretold the dissolution of the man.</div> - <div class='line'>He sobbed, and down his beard the big tears ran.</div> - <div class='line'>And now the scene is changed; the bleak wind’s cry</div> - <div class='line'>Becomes a flight of bullets snarling by</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>From where on yonder summit skulk the Rees.</div> - <div class='line'>Against the sky, in silhouette, he sees</div> - <div class='line'>The headstrong Jamie in the leaden rain.</div> - <div class='line'>And now serenely beautiful and slain</div> - <div class='line'>The dear lad lies within a gusty tent.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Thus vexed with doleful whims the crawler went</div> - <div class='line'>Adrift before the wind, nor saw the trail;</div> - <div class='line'>Till close on night he knew a rugged vale</div> - <div class='line'>Had closed about him; and a hush was there,</div> - <div class='line'>Though still a moaning in the upper air</div> - <div class='line'>Told how the gray-winged gale blew out the day.</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath a clump of brush he swooned away</div> - <div class='line'>Into an icy void; and waking numb,</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed the still white dawn of death had come</div> - <div class='line'>On this, some cradle-valley of the soul.</div> - <div class='line'>He saw a dim, enchanted hollow roll</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath him, and the brush thereof was fleece;</div> - <div class='line'>And, like the body of the perfect peace</div> - <div class='line'>That thralled the whole, abode the break of day.</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed no wind had ever come that way,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor sound dwelt there, nor echo found the place.</div> - <div class='line'>And Hugh lay lapped in wonderment a space,</div> - <div class='line'>Vexed with a snarl whereof the ends were lost,</div> - <div class='line'>Till, shivering, he wondered if a frost</div> - <div class='line'>Had fallen with the dying of the blast.</div> - <div class='line'>So, vaguely troubled, listlessly he cast</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>A gaze about him: lo, above his head</div> - <div class='line'>The gray-green curtain of his chilly bed</div> - <div class='line'>Was broidered thick with plums! Or so it seemed,</div> - <div class='line'>For he was half persuaded that he dreamed;</div> - <div class='line'>And with a steady stare he strove to keep</div> - <div class='line'>That treasure for the other side of sleep.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Returning hunger bade him rise; in vain</div> - <div class='line'>He struggled with a fine-spun mesh of pain</div> - <div class='line'>That trammelled him, until a yellow stream</div> - <div class='line'>Of day flowed down the white vale of a dream</div> - <div class='line'>And left it disenchanted in the glare.</div> - <div class='line'>Then, warmed and soothed, Hugh rose and feasted there,</div> - <div class='line'>And thought once more of reaching the Moreau.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To southward with a painful pace and slow</div> - <div class='line'>He went stiff-jointed; and a gnawing ache</div> - <div class='line'>In that hip-wound he had for Jamie’s sake</div> - <div class='line'>Oft made him groan—nor wrought a tender mood:</div> - <div class='line'>The rankling weapon of ingratitude</div> - <div class='line'>Was turned again with every puckering twinge.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Far down the vale a narrow winding fringe</div> - <div class='line'>Of wilted green betokened how a spring</div> - <div class='line'>There sent a little rill meandering;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>And Hugh was greatly heartened, for he knew</div> - <div class='line'>What fruits and herbs might flourish in the slough,</div> - <div class='line'>And thirst, henceforth, should torture not again.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So day on day, despite the crawler’s pain,</div> - <div class='line'>All in the windless, golden autumn weather,</div> - <div class='line'>These two, as comrades, struggled south together—</div> - <div class='line'>The homeless graybeard and the homing rill:</div> - <div class='line'>And one was sullen with the lust to kill,</div> - <div class='line'>And one went crooning of the moon-wooed vast;</div> - <div class='line'>For each the many-fathomed peace at last,</div> - <div class='line'>But oh the boon of singing on the way!</div> - <div class='line'>So came these in the golden fall of day</div> - <div class='line'>Unto a sudden turn in the ravine,</div> - <div class='line'>Wherefrom Hugh saw a flat of cluttered green</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath the further bluffs of the Moreau.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>With sinking heart he paused and gazed below</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the goal of so much toil and pain.</div> - <div class='line'>Yon green had seemed a paradise to gain</div> - <div class='line'>The while he thirsted where the lonely butte</div> - <div class='line'>Looked far and saw no toothsome herb or fruit</div> - <div class='line'>In all that yellow barren dim with heat.</div> - <div class='line'>But now the wasting body cried for meat,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>And sickness was upon him. Game should pass,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor deign to fear the mighty hunter Glass,</div> - <div class='line'>But curiously sniffing, pause to stare.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now while thus musing, Hugh became aware</div> - <div class='line'>Of some low murmur, phasic and profound,</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce risen o’er the border line of sound.</div> - <div class='line'>It might have been the coursing of his blood,</div> - <div class='line'>Or thunder heard remotely, or a flood</div> - <div class='line'>Flung down a wooded valley far away.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet that had been no weather-breeding day;</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twould frost that night; amid the thirsty land</div> - <div class='line'>All streams ran thin; and when he pressed a hand</div> - <div class='line'>On either ear, the world seemed very still.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The deep-worn channel of the little rill</div> - <div class='line'>Here fell away to eastward, rising, rough</div> - <div class='line'>With old rain-furrows, to a lofty bluff</div> - <div class='line'>That faced the river with a yellow wall.</div> - <div class='line'>Thereto, perplexed, Hugh set about to crawl,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor reached the summit till the sun was low.</div> - <div class='line'>Far-spread, shade-dimpled in the level glow,</div> - <div class='line'>The still land told not whence the murmur grew;</div> - <div class='line'>But where the green strip melted into blue</div> - <div class='line'>Far down the winding valley of the stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh saw what seemed the tempest of a dream</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>At mimic havoc in the timber-glooms.</div> - <div class='line'>As from the sweeping of gigantic brooms,</div> - <div class='line'>A dust cloud deepened down the dwindling river;</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the distant tree-tops ran a shiver</div> - <div class='line'>And huddled thickets writhed as in a gale.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On creeps the windless tempest up the vale,</div> - <div class='line'>The while the murmur deepens to a roar,</div> - <div class='line'>As with the wider yawning of a door.</div> - <div class='line'>And now the agitated green gloom gapes</div> - <div class='line'>To belch a flood of countless dusky shapes</div> - <div class='line'>That mill and wrangle in a turbid flow—</div> - <div class='line'>Migrating myriads of the buffalo</div> - <div class='line'>Bound for the winter pastures of the Platte!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Exhausted, faint with need of meat, Hugh sat</div> - <div class='line'>And watched the mounting of the living flood.</div> - <div class='line'>Down came the night, and like a blot of blood</div> - <div class='line'>The lopped moon weltered in the dust-bleared East.</div> - <div class='line'>Sleep came and gave a Barmecidal feast.</div> - <div class='line'>About a merry flame were simmering</div> - <div class='line'>Sweet haunches of the calving of the Spring,</div> - <div class='line'>And tender tongues that never tasted snow,</div> - <div class='line'>And marrow bones that yielded to a blow</div> - <div class='line'>Such treasure! Hugh awoke with gnashing teeth,</div> - <div class='line'>And heard the mooing drone of cows beneath,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>The roll of hoofs, the challenge of the bull.</div> - <div class='line'>So sounds a freshet when the banks are full</div> - <div class='line'>And bursting brush-jams bellow to the croon</div> - <div class='line'>Of water through green leaves. The ragged moon</div> - <div class='line'>Now drenched the valley in an eerie rain:</div> - <div class='line'>Below, the semblance of a hurricane;</div> - <div class='line'>Above, the perfect calm of brooding frost,</div> - <div class='line'>Through which the wolves in doleful tenson tossed</div> - <div class='line'>From hill to hill the ancient hunger-song.</div> - <div class='line'>In broken sleep Hugh rolled the chill night long,</div> - <div class='line'>Half conscious of the flowing flesh below.</div> - <div class='line'>And now he trailed a bison in the snow</div> - <div class='line'>That deepened till he could not lift his feet.</div> - <div class='line'>Again, he battled for a chunk of meat</div> - <div class='line'>With some gray beast that fought with icy fang.</div> - <div class='line'>And when he woke, the wolves no longer sang;</div> - <div class='line'>White dawn athwart a white world smote the hill,</div> - <div class='line'>And thunder rolled along the valley still.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Morn, wiping up the frost as with a sponge,</div> - <div class='line'>Day on the steep and down the nightward plunge,</div> - <div class='line'>And Twilight saw the myriads moving on.</div> - <div class='line'>Dust to the westward where the van had gone,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>And dust and muffled thunder in the east!</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh starved while gazing on a Titan feast.</div> - <div class='line'>The tons of beef, that eddied there and swirled,</div> - <div class='line'>Had stilled the crying hungers of the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet not one little morsel was for him.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The red sun, pausing on the dusty rim,</div> - <div class='line'>Induced a panic aspect of his plight:</div> - <div class='line'>The herd would pass and vanish in the night</div> - <div class='line'>And be another dream to cling and flout.</div> - <div class='line'>Now scanning all the summit round about,</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the rubble of the ancient drift</div> - <div class='line'>He saw a bowlder. ‘Twas too big to lift,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet he might roll it. Painfully and slow</div> - <div class='line'>He worked it to the edge, then let it go</div> - <div class='line'>And breathlessly expectant watched it fall.</div> - <div class='line'>It hurtled down the leaning yellow wall,</div> - <div class='line'>And bounding from a brushy ledge’s brow,</div> - <div class='line'>It barely grazed the buttocks of a cow</div> - <div class='line'>And made a moment’s eddy where it struck.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In peevish wrath Hugh cursed his evil luck,</div> - <div class='line'>And seizing rubble, gave his fury vent</div> - <div class='line'>By pelting bison till his strength was spent:</div> - <div class='line'>So might a child assail the crowding sea!</div> - <div class='line'>Then, sick at heart and musing bitterly,</div> - <div class='line'>He shambled down the steep way to the creek,</div> - <div class='line'>And having stayed the tearing buzzard beak</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>With breadroot and the waters of the rill,</div> - <div class='line'>Slept till the white of morning o’er the hill</div> - <div class='line'>Was like a whisper groping in a hush.</div> - <div class='line'>The stream’s low trill seemed loud. The tumbled brush</div> - <div class='line'>And rumpled tree-tops in the flat below,</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a fog that clung like spectral snow,</div> - <div class='line'>Lay motionless; nor any sound was there.</div> - <div class='line'>No frost had fallen, but the crystal air</div> - <div class='line'>Smacked of the autumn, and a heavy dew</div> - <div class='line'>Lay hoar upon the grass. There came on Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>A picture, vivid in the moment’s thrill,</div> - <div class='line'>Of martialed corn-shocks marching up a hill</div> - <div class='line'>And spiked fields dotted with the pumpkin’s gold.</div> - <div class='line'>It vanished; and, a-shiver with the cold,</div> - <div class='line'>He brooded on the mockeries of Chance,</div> - <div class='line'>The shrewd malignity of Circumstance</div> - <div class='line'>That either gave too little or too much.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet, with the fragment of a hope for crutch,</div> - <div class='line'>His spirit rallied, and he rose to go,</div> - <div class='line'>Though each stiff joint resisted as a foe</div> - <div class='line'>And that old hip-wound battled with his will.</div> - <div class='line'>So down along the channel of the rill</div> - <div class='line'>Unto the vale below he fought his way.</div> - <div class='line'>The frore fog, rifting in the risen day,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>Revealed the havoc of the living flood—</div> - <div class='line'>The river shallows beaten into mud,</div> - <div class='line'>The slender saplings shattered in the crush,</div> - <div class='line'>All lower leafage stripped, the tousled brush</div> - <div class='line'>Despoiled of fruitage, winter-thin, aghast.</div> - <div class='line'>And where the avalanche of hoofs had passed</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed nor herb nor grass had ever been.</div> - <div class='line'>And this the hard-won paradise, wherein</div> - <div class='line'>A food-devouring plethora of food</div> - <div class='line'>Had come to make a starving solitude!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet hope and courage mounted with the sun.</div> - <div class='line'>Surely, Hugh thought, some ill-begotten one</div> - <div class='line'>Of all that striving mass had lost the strife</div> - <div class='line'>And perished in the headlong stream of life—</div> - <div class='line'>A feast to fill the bellies of the strong,</div> - <div class='line'>That still the weak might perish. All day long</div> - <div class='line'>He struggled down the stricken vale, nor saw</div> - <div class='line'>What thing he sought. But when the twilight awe</div> - <div class='line'>Was creeping in, beyond a bend arose</div> - <div class='line'>A din as though the kiotes and the crows</div> - <div class='line'>Fought there with shrill and raucous battle cries.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Small need had Hugh to ponder and surmise</div> - <div class='line'>What guerdon beak and fang contended for.</div> - <div class='line'>Within himself the oldest cause of war</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>Brought forth upon the instant fang and beak.</div> - <div class='line'>He too would fight! Nor had he far to seek</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the driftwood strewn about the sand</div> - <div class='line'>For weapons suited to a brawny hand</div> - <div class='line'>With such a purpose. Armed with club and stone</div> - <div class='line'>He forged ahead into the battle zone,</div> - <div class='line'>And from a screening thicket spied his foes.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He saw a bison carcass black with crows,</div> - <div class='line'>And over it a welter of black wings,</div> - <div class='line'>And round about, a press of tawny rings</div> - <div class='line'>That, like a muddy current churned to foam</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a snag, flashed whitely in the gloam</div> - <div class='line'>With naked teeth; while close about the prize</div> - <div class='line'>Red beaks and muzzles bloody to the eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Betrayed how worth a struggle was the feast.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then came on Hugh the fury of the beast—</div> - <div class='line'>To eat or to be eaten! Better so</div> - <div class='line'>To die contending with a living foe,</div> - <div class='line'>Than fight the yielding distance and the lack.</div> - <div class='line'>Masked by the brush he opened the attack,</div> - <div class='line'>And ever where a stone or club fell true,</div> - <div class='line'>About the stricken one an uproar grew</div> - <div class='line'>And brute tore brute, forgetful of the prey,</div> - <div class='line'>Until the whole pack tumbled in the fray</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>With bleeding flanks and lacerated throats.</div> - <div class='line'>Then, as the leader of a host who notes</div> - <div class='line'>The cannon-wrought confusion of the foe,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh seized the moment for a daring blow.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The wolf’s a coward, who, in goodly packs,</div> - <div class='line'>May counterfeit the courage that he lacks</div> - <div class='line'>And with a craven’s fury crush the bold.</div> - <div class='line'>But when the disunited mass that rolled</div> - <div class='line'>In suicidal strife, became aware</div> - <div class='line'>How some great beast that shambled like a bear</div> - <div class='line'>Bore down with roaring challenge, fell a hush</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the pack, some slinking to the brush</div> - <div class='line'>With tails a-droop; while some that whined in pain</div> - <div class='line'>Writhed off on reddened trails. With bristled mane</div> - <div class='line'>Before the flying stones a bolder few</div> - <div class='line'>Snarled menace at the foe as they withdrew</div> - <div class='line'>To fill the outer dusk with clamorings.</div> - <div class='line'>Aloft upon a moaning wind of wings</div> - <div class='line'>The crows with harsh, vituperative cries</div> - <div class='line'>Now saw a gray wolf of prodigious size</div> - <div class='line'>Devouring with the frenzy of the starved.</div> - <div class='line'>Thus fell to Hugh a bison killed and carved;</div> - <div class='line'>And so Fate’s whims mysteriously trend—</div> - <div class='line'>Woe in the silken meshes of the friend,</div> - <div class='line'>Weal in the might and menace of the foe.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>But with the fading of the afterglow</div> - <div class='line'>The routed wolves found courage to return:</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the brush Hugh saw their eye-balls burn;</div> - <div class='line'>And well he knew how futile stick and stone</div> - <div class='line'>Should prove by night to keep them from their own.</div> - <div class='line'>Better is less with safety, than enough</div> - <div class='line'>With ruin. He retreated to a bluff,</div> - <div class='line'>And scarce had reached it when the pack swooped in</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the carcass.</div> - <div class='line in18'>All night long, the din</div> - <div class='line'>Of wrangling wolves assailed the starry air,</div> - <div class='line'>While high above them in a brushy lair</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh dreamed of gnawing at the bloody feast.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Along about the blanching of the east,</div> - <div class='line'>When sleep is weirdest and a moment’s flight,</div> - <div class='line'>Remembered coextensive with the night,</div> - <div class='line'>May teem with hapful years; as light in smoke,</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the jumble of Hugh’s dreaming broke</div> - <div class='line'>A buzz of human voices. Once again</div> - <div class='line'>He rode the westward trail with Henry’s men—</div> - <div class='line'>Hoof-smitten leagues consuming in a dust.</div> - <div class='line'>And now the nightmare of that broken trust</div> - <div class='line'>Was on him, and he lay beside the spring,</div> - <div class='line'>A corpse, yet heard the muffled parleying</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>Above him of the looters of the dead:</div> - <div class='line'>But when he might have riddled what they said,</div> - <div class='line'>The babble flattened to a blur of gray—</div> - <div class='line'>And lo, upon a bleak frontier of day,</div> - <div class='line'>The spent moon staring down! A little space</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh scrutinized the featureless white face,</div> - <div class='line'>As though ‘twould speak. But when again the sound</div> - <div class='line'>Grew up, and seemed to come from under ground,</div> - <div class='line'>He cast the drowse, and peering down the slope,</div> - <div class='line'>Beheld what set at grapple fear and hope—</div> - <div class='line'>Three Indian horsemen riding at a jog!</div> - <div class='line'>Their ponies, wading belly-deep in fog,</div> - <div class='line'>That clung along the valley, seemed to swim,</div> - <div class='line'>And through a thinner vapor moving dim,</div> - <div class='line'>The men were ghost-like.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Could they be the Sioux?</div> - <div class='line'>Almost the wish became belief in Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>Or were they Rees? As readily the doubt</div> - <div class='line'>Withheld him from the hazard of a shout.</div> - <div class='line'>And while he followed them with baffled gaze,</div> - <div class='line'>Grown large and vague, dissolving in the haze,</div> - <div class='line'>They vanished westward.</div> - <div class='line in24'>Knowing well the wont</div> - <div class='line'>Of Indians moving on the bison-hunt,</div> - <div class='line'>Forthwith Hugh guessed the early riders were</div> - <div class='line'>The outflung feelers of a tribe a-stir</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>Like some huge cat gone mousing. So he lay</div> - <div class='line'>Concealed, impatient with the sleepy day</div> - <div class='line'>That dawdled in the dawning. Would it bring</div> - <div class='line'>Good luck or ill? His eager questioning,</div> - <div class='line'>As crawling fog, took on a golden hue</div> - <div class='line'>From sunrise. He was waiting for the Sioux,</div> - <div class='line'>Their parfleche panniers fat with sun-dried maize</div> - <div class='line'>And wasna! From the mint of evil days</div> - <div class='line'>He would coin tales and be no begging guest</div> - <div class='line'>About the tribal feast-fires burning west,</div> - <div class='line'>But kinsman of the blood of daring men.</div> - <div class='line'>And when the crawler stood erect again—</div> - <div class='line'>O Friend-Betrayer at the Big Horn’s mouth,</div> - <div class='line'>Beware of someone riding from the South</div> - <div class='line'>To do the deed that he had lived to do!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now when the sun stood hour-high in the blue,</div> - <div class='line'>From where a cloud of startled blackbirds rose</div> - <div class='line'>Down stream, a panic tumult broke the doze</div> - <div class='line'>Of windless morning. What unwelcome news</div> - <div class='line'>Embroiled the parliament of feathered shrews?</div> - <div class='line'>A boiling cloud against the sun they lower,</div> - <div class='line'>Flackering strepent; now a sooty shower,</div> - <div class='line'>Big-flaked, squall-driven westward, down they flutter</div> - <div class='line'>To set a clump of cottonwoods a-sputter</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>With cold black fire! And once again, some shock</div> - <div class='line'>Of sight or sound flings panic in the flock—</div> - <div class='line'>Gray boughs exploding in a ruck of birds!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What augury in orniscopic words</div> - <div class='line'>Did yon swart sibyls on the morning scrawl?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now broke abruptly through the clacking brawl</div> - <div class='line'>A camp-dog’s barking and a pony’s neigh;</div> - <div class='line'>Whereat a running nicker fled away,</div> - <div class='line'>Attenuating to a rearward hush;</div> - <div class='line'>And lo! in hailing distance ‘round the brush</div> - <div class='line'>That fringed a jutting bluff’s base like a beard</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a stubborn chin out-thrust, appeared</div> - <div class='line'>A band of mounted warriors! In their van</div> - <div class='line'>Aloof and lonely rode a gnarled old man</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a piebald stallion. Stooped was he</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath his heavy years, yet haughtily</div> - <div class='line'>He wore them like the purple of a king.</div> - <div class='line'>Keen for a goal, as from the driving string</div> - <div class='line'>A barbed and feathered arrow truly sped,</div> - <div class='line'>His face was like a flinty arrow-head,</div> - <div class='line'>And brooded westward in a steady stare.</div> - <div class='line'>There was a sift of winter in his hair,</div> - <div class='line'>The bleakness of brown winter in his look.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>Hugh saw, and huddled closer in his nook.</div> - <div class='line'>Fled the bright dreams of safety, feast and rest</div> - <div class='line'>Before that keen, cold brooder on the West,</div> - <div class='line'>As gaudy leaves before the blizzard flee.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas Elk Tongue, fighting chieftain of the Ree,</div> - <div class='line'>With all his people at his pony’s tail—</div> - <div class='line'>Full two-score lodges emptied on the trail</div> - <div class='line'>Of hunger!</div> - <div class='line in12'>On they came in ravelled rank,</div> - <div class='line'>And many a haggard eye and hollow flank</div> - <div class='line'>Made plain how close and pitilessly pressed</div> - <div class='line'>The enemy that drove them to the West—</div> - <div class='line'>Such foeman as no warrior ever slew.</div> - <div class='line'>A tale of cornfields plundered by the Sioux</div> - <div class='line'>Their sagging panniers told. Yet rich enough</div> - <div class='line'>They seemed to him who watched them from the bluff;</div> - <div class='line'>Yea, pampered nigh the limit of desire!</div> - <div class='line'>No friend had filched from them the boon of fire</div> - <div class='line'>And hurled them shivering back upon the beast.</div> - <div class='line'>Erect they went, full-armed to strive, at least;</div> - <div class='line'>And nightly in a cozy ember-glow</div> - <div class='line'>Hope fed them with a dream of buffalo</div> - <div class='line'>Soon to be overtaken. After that,</div> - <div class='line'>Home with their Pawnee cousins on the Platte,</div> - <div class='line'>Much meat and merry-making till the Spring.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>On dragged the rabble like a fraying string</div> - <div class='line'>Too tautly drawn. The rich-in-ponies rode,</div> - <div class='line'>For much is light and little is a load</div> - <div class='line'>Among all heathen with no Christ to save!</div> - <div class='line'>Gray seekers for the yet begrudging grave,</div> - <div class='line'>Bent with the hoeing of forgotten maize,</div> - <div class='line'>Wood-hewers, water-bearers all their days,</div> - <div class='line'>Toiled ‘neath the life-long hoarding of their packs.</div> - <div class='line'>And nursing squaws, their babies at their backs</div> - <div class='line'>Whining because the milk they got was thinned</div> - <div class='line'>In dugs of famine, strove as with a wind.</div> - <div class='line'>Invincibly equipped with their first bows</div> - <div class='line'>The striplings strutted, knowing, as youth knows,</div> - <div class='line'>How fair life is beyond the beckoning blue.</div> - <div class='line'>Cold-eyed the grandsires plodded, for they knew,</div> - <div class='line'>As frosted heads may know, how all trails merge</div> - <div class='line'>In what lone land. Raw maidens on the verge</div> - <div class='line'>Of some half-guessed-at mystery of life,</div> - <div class='line'>In wistful emulation of the wife</div> - <div class='line'>Stooped to the fancied burden of the race;</div> - <div class='line'>Nor read upon the withered granddam’s face</div> - <div class='line'>The scrawled tale of that burden and its woe.</div> - <div class='line'>Slant to the sagging poles of the travaux,</div> - <div class='line'>Numb to the squaw’s harsh railing and the goad,</div> - <div class='line'>The lean cayuses toiled. And children rode</div> - <div class='line'>A-top the household plunder, wonder-eyed</div> - <div class='line'>To see a world flow by on either side,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>From blue air sprung to vanish in blue air,</div> - <div class='line'>A river of enchantments.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Here and there</div> - <div class='line'>The camp-curs loped upon a vexing quest</div> - <div class='line'>Where countless hoofs had left a palimpsest,</div> - <div class='line'>A taunting snarl of broken scents. And now</div> - <div class='line'>They sniff the clean bones of the bison cow,</div> - <div class='line'>Howl to the skies; and now with manes a-rough</div> - <div class='line'>They nose the man-smell leading to the bluff;</div> - <div class='line'>Pause puzzled at the base and sweep the height</div> - <div class='line'>With questioning yelps. Aloft, crouched low in fright,</div> - <div class='line'>Already Hugh can hear the braves’ guffaws</div> - <div class='line'>At their scorned foeman yielded to the squaws’</div> - <div class='line'>Inverted mercy and a slow-won grave.</div> - <div class='line'>Since Earth’s first mother scolded from a cave</div> - <div class='line'>And that dear riddle of her love began,</div> - <div class='line'>No man has wrought a weapon against man</div> - <div class='line'>To match the deadly venom brewed above</div> - <div class='line'>The lean, blue, blinding heart-fires of her love.</div> - <div class='line'>Well might the hunted hunter shrink aghast!</div> - <div class='line'>But thrice three seasons yet should swell the past,</div> - <div class='line'>So was it writ, ere Fate’s keen harriers</div> - <div class='line'>Should run Hugh Glass to earth.</div> - <div class='line in32'>The hungry curs</div> - <div class='line'>Took up again the tangled scent of food.</div> - <div class='line'>Still flowed the rabble through the solitude—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>A thinning stream now of the halt, the weak</div> - <div class='line'>And all who had not very far to seek</div> - <div class='line'>For that weird pass whereto the fleet are slow,</div> - <div class='line'>And out of it keen winds and numbing blow,</div> - <div class='line'>Shrill with the fleeing voices of the dead.</div> - <div class='line'>Slowly the scattered stragglers, making head</div> - <div class='line'>Against their weariness as up a steep,</div> - <div class='line'>Fled westward; and the morning lay asleep</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the valley fallen wondrous still.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Hugh kept his nook, nor ventured forth, until</div> - <div class='line'>The high day toppled to the blue descent,</div> - <div class='line'>When thirst became a master, and he went</div> - <div class='line'>With painful scrambling down the broken scarp,</div> - <div class='line'>Lured by the stream, that like a smitten harp</div> - <div class='line'>Rippled a muted music to the sun.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Scarce had he crossed the open flat, and won</div> - <div class='line'>The half-way fringe of willows, when he saw,</div> - <div class='line'>Slow plodding up the trail, a tottering squaw</div> - <div class='line'>Whose years made big the little pack she bore.</div> - <div class='line'>Crouched in the brush Hugh watched her. More and more</div> - <div class='line'>The little burden tempted him. Why not?</div> - <div class='line'>A thin cry throttled in that lonely spot</div> - <div class='line'>Could bring no succor. None should ever know,</div> - <div class='line'>Save him, the feasted kiote and the crow,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>Why one poor crone found not the midnight fire.</div> - <div class='line'>Nor would the vanguard, quick with young desire,</div> - <div class='line'>Devouring distance westward like a flame,</div> - <div class='line'>Regret this ash dropped rearward.</div> - <div class='line in36'>On she came,</div> - <div class='line'>Slow-footed, staring blankly on the sand—</div> - <div class='line'>So close now that it needed but a hand</div> - <div class='line'>Out-thrust to overthrow her; aye, to win</div> - <div class='line'>That priceless spoil, a little tent of skin,</div> - <div class='line'>A flint and steel, a kettle and a knife!</div> - <div class='line'>What did the dying with the means of life,</div> - <div class='line'>That thus the fit-to-live should suffer lack?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Poised for the lunge, what whimsy held him back?</div> - <div class='line'>Why did he gaze upon the passing prize,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor seize it? Did some gust of ghostly cries</div> - <div class='line'>Awaken round her—whisperings of Eld,</div> - <div class='line'>Wraith-voices of the babies she had held—</div> - <div class='line'>To plead for pity on her graveward days?</div> - <div class='line'>Far down a moment’s cleavage in the haze</div> - <div class='line'>Of backward years Hugh saw her now—nor saw</div> - <div class='line'>The little burden and the feeble squaw,</div> - <div class='line'>But someone sitting haloed like a saint</div> - <div class='line'>Beside a hearth long cold. The dream grew faint;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>And when he looked again, the crone was gone</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond a clump of willow.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Crawling on,</div> - <div class='line'>He reached the river. Leaning to a pool</div> - <div class='line'>Calm in its cup of sand, he saw—a fool!</div> - <div class='line'>A wild, wry mask of mirth, a-grin, yet grim,</div> - <div class='line'>Rose there to claim identity with him</div> - <div class='line'>And ridicule his folly. Pity? Faugh!</div> - <div class='line'>Who pitied this, that it should spare a squaw</div> - <div class='line'>Spent in the spawning of a scorpion brood?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He drank and hastened down the solitude,</div> - <div class='line'>Fleeing that thing which fleered him, and was Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>And as he went his self-accusing grew</div> - <div class='line'>And with it, anger; till it came to seem</div> - <div class='line'>That somehow some sly Jamie of a dream</div> - <div class='line'>Had plundered him again; and he was strong</div> - <div class='line'>With lust of vengeance and the sting of wrong,</div> - <div class='line'>So that he travelled faster than for days.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now when the eve in many-shaded grays</div> - <div class='line'>Wove the day’s shroud, and through the lower lands</div> - <div class='line'>Lean fog-arms groped with chilling spirit hands,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh paused perplexed. Elusive, haunting, dim,</div> - <div class='line'>As though some memory that stirred in him,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>Invasive of the real, outgrew the dream,</div> - <div class='line'>There came upon the breeze that stole up stream</div> - <div class='line'>A whiff of woodsmoke.</div> - <div class='line in24'>‘Twixt a beat and beat</div> - <div class='line'>Of Hugh’s deluded heart, it seemed the sweet</div> - <div class='line'>Allure of home.—A brief way, and one came</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the clearing where the sumach flame</div> - <div class='line'>Ran round the forest-fringe; and just beyond</div> - <div class='line'>One saw the slough grass nodding in the pond</div> - <div class='line'>Unto the sleepy troll the bullfrogs sung.</div> - <div class='line'>And then one saw the place where one was young—</div> - <div class='line'>The log-house sitting on a stumpy rise.</div> - <div class='line'>Hearth-lit within, its windows were as eyes</div> - <div class='line'>That love much and are faded with old tears.</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed regretful of a life’s arrears,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet patient, with a self-denying poise,</div> - <div class='line'>Like some old mother for her bearded boys</div> - <div class='line'>Waiting sweet-hearted and a little sad.—</div> - <div class='line'>So briefly dreamed a recrudescent lad</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath gray hairs, and fled.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Through chill and damp</div> - <div class='line'>Still groped the odor, hinting at a camp,</div> - <div class='line'>A two-tongued herald wooing hope and fear.</div> - <div class='line'>Was hospitality or danger near?</div> - <div class='line'>A Sioux war-party hot upon the trail,</div> - <div class='line'>Or laggard Rees? Hugh crawled across the vale,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>Toiled up along a zigzag gully’s bed</div> - <div class='line'>And reached a bluff’s top. In a smudge of red</div> - <div class='line'>The West burned low. Hill summits, yet alight,</div> - <div class='line'>And pools of gloom anticipating night</div> - <div class='line'>Mottled the landscape to the dull blue rim.</div> - <div class='line'>What freak of fancy had imposed on him?</div> - <div class='line'>Could one smell home-smoke fifty years away?</div> - <div class='line'>He saw no fire; no pluming spire of gray</div> - <div class='line'>Rose in the dimming air to woo or warn.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He lay upon the bare height, fagged, forlorn,</div> - <div class='line'>And old times came upon him with the creep</div> - <div class='line'>Of subtle drugs that put the will to sleep</div> - <div class='line'>And wreak doom to the soothing of a dream.</div> - <div class='line'>So listlessly he scanned the sombrous stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Scarce seeing what he scanned. The dark increased;</div> - <div class='line'>A chill wind wakened from the frowning east</div> - <div class='line'>And soughed along the vale.</div> - <div class='line in28'>Then with a start</div> - <div class='line'>He saw what broke the torpor of his heart</div> - <div class='line'>And set the wild blood free. From where he lay</div> - <div class='line'>An easy point-blank rifle-shot away,</div> - <div class='line'>Appeared a mystic germinating spark</div> - <div class='line'>That in some secret garden of the dark</div> - <div class='line'>Upreared a frail, blue, nodding stem, whereon</div> - <div class='line'>A ruddy lily flourished—and was gone!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>What miracle was this? Again it grew,</div> - <div class='line'>The scarlet blossom on the stem of blue,</div> - <div class='line'>And withered back again into the night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>With pounding heart Hugh crawled along the height</div> - <div class='line'>And reached a point of vantage whence, below,</div> - <div class='line'>He saw capricious witch-lights dim and glow</div> - <div class='line'>Like far-spent embers quickened in a breeze.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas surely not a camp of laggard Rees,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor yet of Siouan warriors hot in chase.</div> - <div class='line'>Dusk and a quiet bivouacked in that place.</div> - <div class='line'>A doddering vagrant with numb hands, the Wind</div> - <div class='line'>Fumbled the dying ashes there, and whined.</div> - <div class='line'>It was the day-old camp-ground of the foe!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Glad-hearted now, Hugh gained the vale below,</div> - <div class='line'>Keen to possess once more the ancient gift.</div> - <div class='line'>Nearing the glow, he saw vague shadows lift</div> - <div class='line'>Out of the painted gloom of smouldering logs—</div> - <div class='line'>Distorted bulks that bristled, and were dogs</div> - <div class='line'>Snarling at this invasion of their lair.</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh charged upon them, growling like a bear,</div> - <div class='line'>And sent them whining.</div> - <div class='line in26'>Now again to view</div> - <div class='line'>The burgeoning of scarlet, gold and blue,</div> - <div class='line'>The immemorial miracle of fire!</div> - <div class='line'>From heaped-up twigs a tenuous smoky spire</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>Arose, and made an altar of the place.</div> - <div class='line'>The spark-glow, faint upon the grizzled face,</div> - <div class='line'>Transformed the kneeling outcast to a priest;</div> - <div class='line'>And, native of the light-begetting East,</div> - <div class='line'>The Wind became a chanting acolyte.</div> - <div class='line'>These two, entempled in the vaulted night,</div> - <div class='line'>Breathed conjuries of interwoven breath.</div> - <div class='line'>Then, hark!—the snapping of the chains of Death!</div> - <div class='line'>From dead wood, lo!—the epiphanic god!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Once more the freightage of the fennel rod</div> - <div class='line'>Dissolved the chilling pall of Jovian scorn.</div> - <div class='line'>The wonder of the resurrection morn,</div> - <div class='line'>The face apocalyptic and the sword,</div> - <div class='line'>The glory of the many-symboled Lord,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh, lifting up his eyes about him, saw!</div> - <div class='line'>And something in him like a vernal thaw,</div> - <div class='line'>Voiced with the sound of many waters, ran</div> - <div class='line'>And quickened to the laughter of a man.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Light-heartedly he fed the singing flame</div> - <div class='line'>And took its blessing: till a soft sleep came</div> - <div class='line'>With dreaming that was like a pleasant tale.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The far white dawn was peering up the vale</div> - <div class='line'>When he awoke to indolent content.</div> - <div class='line'>A few shorn stars in pale astonishment</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>Were huddled westward; and the fire was low.</div> - <div class='line'>Three scrawny camp-curs, mustered in a row</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond the heap of embers, heads askew,</div> - <div class='line'>Ears pricked to question what the man might do,</div> - <div class='line'>Sat wistfully regardant. He arose;</div> - <div class='line'>And they, grown canny in a school of blows,</div> - <div class='line'>Skulked to a safer distance, there to raise</div> - <div class='line'>A dolorous chanting of the evil days,</div> - <div class='line'>Their gray breath like the body of a prayer.</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh nursed the sullen embers to a flare,</div> - <div class='line'>Then set about to view an empty camp</div> - <div class='line'>As once before; but now no smoky lamp</div> - <div class='line'>Of blear suspicion searched a gloom of fraud</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein a smirking Friendship, like a bawd,</div> - <div class='line'>Embraced a coward Safety; now no grief,</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twixt hideous revelation and belief,</div> - <div class='line'>Made womanish the man; but glad to strive,</div> - <div class='line'>With hope to nerve him and a will to drive,</div> - <div class='line'>He knew that he could finish in the race.</div> - <div class='line'>The staring impassivity of space</div> - <div class='line'>No longer mocked; the dreadful skyward climb,</div> - <div class='line'>Where distance seemed identical with time,</div> - <div class='line'>Was past now; and that mystic something, luck,</div> - <div class='line'>Without which worth may flounder in the ruck,</div> - <div class='line'>Had turned to him again.</div> - <div class='line in26'>So flamelike soared</div> - <div class='line'>Rekindled hope in him as he explored</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>Among the ash-heaps; and the lean dogs ran</div> - <div class='line'>And barked about him, for the love of man</div> - <div class='line'>Wistful, yet fearing. Surely he could find</div> - <div class='line'>Some trifle in the hurry left behind—</div> - <div class='line'>Or haply hidden in the trampled sand—</div> - <div class='line'>That to the cunning of a needy hand</div> - <div class='line'>Should prove the master-key of circumstance:</div> - <div class='line'>For ‘tis the little gifts of grudging Chance,</div> - <div class='line'>Well husbanded, make victors.</div> - <div class='line in30'>Long he sought</div> - <div class='line'>Without avail; and, crawling back, he thought</div> - <div class='line'>Of how the dogs were growing less afraid,</div> - <div class='line'>And how one might be skinned without a blade.</div> - <div class='line'>A flake of flint might do it: he would try.</div> - <div class='line'>And then he saw—or did the servile eye</div> - <div class='line'>Trick out a mental image like the real?</div> - <div class='line'>He saw a glimmering of whetted steel</div> - <div class='line'>Beside a heap now washed with morning light!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Scarce more of marvel and the sense of might</div> - <div class='line'>Moved Arthur when he reached a hand to take</div> - <div class='line'>The fay-wrought brand emerging from the lake,</div> - <div class='line'>Whereby a kingdom should be lopped of strife,</div> - <div class='line'>Than Hugh now, pouncing on a trader’s knife</div> - <div class='line'>Worn hollow in the use of bounteous days!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And now behold a rich man by the blaze</div> - <div class='line'>Of his own hearth—a lord of steel and fire!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>Not having, but the measure of desire</div> - <div class='line'>Determines wealth. Who gaining more, seek most,</div> - <div class='line'>Are ever the pursuers of a ghost</div> - <div class='line'>And lend their fleetness to the fugitive.</div> - <div class='line'>For Hugh, long goaded by the wish to live,</div> - <div class='line'>What gage of mastery in fire and tool!—</div> - <div class='line'>That twain wherewith Time put the brute to school,</div> - <div class='line'>Evolving Man, the maker and the seer.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Twixt urging hunger and restraining fear</div> - <div class='line'>The gaunt dogs hovered round the man; while he</div> - <div class='line'>Cajoled them in the language of the Ree</div> - <div class='line'>And simulated feeding them with sand,</div> - <div class='line'>Until the boldest dared to sniff his hand,</div> - <div class='line'>Bare-fanged and with conciliative whine.</div> - <div class='line'>Through bristled mane the quick blade bit the spine</div> - <div class='line'>Below the skull; and as a flame-struck thing</div> - <div class='line'>The body humped and shuddered, withering;</div> - <div class='line'>The lank limbs huddled, wilted.</div> - <div class='line in34'>Now to skin</div> - <div class='line'>The carcass, dig a hole, arrange therein</div> - <div class='line'>And fix the pelt with stakes, the flesh-side up.</div> - <div class='line'>This done, he shaped the bladder to a cup</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>On willow withes, and filled the rawhide pot</div> - <div class='line'>With water from the river—made it hot</div> - <div class='line'>With roasted stones, and set the meat a-boil.</div> - <div class='line'>Those days of famine and prodigious toil</div> - <div class='line'>Had wrought bulimic cravings in the man,</div> - <div class='line'>And scarce the cooking of the flesh outran</div> - <div class='line'>The eating of it. As a fed flame towers</div> - <div class='line'>According to the fuel it devours,</div> - <div class='line'>His hunger with indulgence grew, nor ceased</div> - <div class='line'>Until the kettle, empty of the feast,</div> - <div class='line'>Went dim, the sky and valley, merging, swirled</div> - <div class='line'>In subtle smoke that smothered out the world.</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh slept.</div> - <div class='line in8'>And then—as divers, mounting, sunder</div> - <div class='line'>A murmuring murk to blink in sudden wonder</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a dazzling upper deep of blue—</div> - <div class='line'>He rose again to consciousness, and knew</div> - <div class='line'>The low sun beating slantly on his face.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now indolently gazing round the place,</div> - <div class='line'>He noted how the curs had revelled there—</div> - <div class='line'>The bones and entrails gone; some scattered hair</div> - <div class='line'>Alone remaining of the pot of hide.</div> - <div class='line'>How strange he had not heard them at his side!</div> - <div class='line'>And granting but one afternoon had passed,</div> - <div class='line'>What could have made the fire burn out so fast?</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>Had daylight waned, night fallen, morning crept,</div> - <div class='line'>Noon blazed, a new day dwindled while he slept?</div> - <div class='line'>And was the friendlike fire a Jamie too?</div> - <div class='line'>Across the twilit consciousness of Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>The old obsession like a wounded bird</div> - <div class='line'>Fluttered.</div> - <div class='line in12'>He got upon his knees and stirred</div> - <div class='line'>The feathery ash; but not a spark was there.</div> - <div class='line'>Already with the failing sun the air</div> - <div class='line'>Went keen, betokening a frosty night.</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh winced with something like the clutch of fright.</div> - <div class='line'>How could he bear the torture, how sustain</div> - <div class='line'>The sting of that antiquity of pain</div> - <div class='line'>Rolled back upon him—face again the foe,</div> - <div class='line'>That yielding victor, fleet in being slow,</div> - <div class='line'>That huge, impersonal malevolence?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So readily the tentacles of sense</div> - <div class='line'>Root in the larger standard of desire,</div> - <div class='line'>That Hugh fell farther in the loss of fire</div> - <div class='line'>Than in the finding of it he arose.</div> - <div class='line'>And suddenly the place grew strange, as grows</div> - <div class='line'>A friend’s house, when the friend is on his bier,</div> - <div class='line'>And all that was familiar there and dear</div> - <div class='line'>Puts on a blank, inhospitable look.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>Hugh set his face against the east, and took</div> - <div class='line'>That dreariest of ways, the trail of flight.</div> - <div class='line'>He would outcrawl the shadow of the night</div> - <div class='line'>And have the day to blanket him in sleep.</div> - <div class='line'>But as he went to meet the gloom a-creep,</div> - <div class='line'>Bemused with life’s irrational rebuffs,</div> - <div class='line'>A yelping of the dogs among the bluffs</div> - <div class='line'>Rose, hunger-whetted, stabbing; rent the pall</div> - <div class='line'>Of evening silence; blunted to a drawl</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the arid waterways, and died.</div> - <div class='line'>And as the echo to the sound replied,</div> - <div class='line'>So in the troubled mind of Hugh was wrought</div> - <div class='line'>A reminiscent cry of thought to thought</div> - <div class='line'>That, groping, found an unlocked door to life:</div> - <div class='line'>The dogs—keen flint to skin one—then the knife</div> - <div class='line'>Discovered. Why, that made a flint and steel!</div> - <div class='line'>No further with the subtle foe at heel</div> - <div class='line'>He fled; for all about him in the rock,</div> - <div class='line'>To waken when the needy hand might knock,</div> - <div class='line'>A savior slept! He found a flake of flint,</div> - <div class='line'>Scraped from his shirt a little wad of lint,</div> - <div class='line'>Spilled on it from the smitten stone a shower</div> - <div class='line'>Of ruddy seed; and saw the mystic flower</div> - <div class='line'>That genders its own summer, bloom anew!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And so capricious luck came back to Hugh;</div> - <div class='line'>And he was happier than he had been</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>Since Jamie to that unforgiven sin</div> - <div class='line'>Had yielded, ages back upon the Grand.</div> - <div class='line'>Now he would turn the cunning of his hand</div> - <div class='line'>To carving crutches, that he might arise,</div> - <div class='line'>Be manlike, lift more rapidly the skies</div> - <div class='line'>That crouched between his purpose and the mark.</div> - <div class='line'>The warm glow housed him from the frosty dark,</div> - <div class='line'>And there he wrought in very joyous mood</div> - <div class='line'>And sang by fits—whereat the solitude</div> - <div class='line'>Set laggard singers snatching at the tune.</div> - <div class='line'>The gaunter for their hunt, the dogs came soon</div> - <div class='line'>To haunt the shaken fringes of the glow,</div> - <div class='line'>And, pitching voices to the timeless woe,</div> - <div class='line'>Outwailed the lilting. So the Chorus sings</div> - <div class='line'>Of terror, pity and the tears of things</div> - <div class='line'>When most the doomed protagonist is gay.</div> - <div class='line'>The stars swarmed over, and the front of day</div> - <div class='line'>Whitened above a white world, and the sun</div> - <div class='line'>Rose on a sleeper with a task well done,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor roused him till its burning topped the blue.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When Hugh awoke, there woke a younger Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>Now half a stranger; and ‘twas good to feel</div> - <div class='line'>With ebbing sleep the old green vigor steal,</div> - <div class='line'>Thrilling, along his muscles and his veins,</div> - <div class='line'>As in a lull of winter-cleansing rains</div> - <div class='line'>The gray bough quickens to the sap a-creep.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>It chanced the dogs lay near him, sound asleep,</div> - <div class='line'>Curled nose to buttock in the noonday glow.</div> - <div class='line'>He killed the larger with a well-aimed blow,</div> - <div class='line'>Skinned, dressed and set it roasting on a spit;</div> - <div class='line'>And when ‘twas cooked, ate sparingly of it,</div> - <div class='line'>For need might yet make little seem a feast.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fording the river shallows, south by east</div> - <div class='line'>He hobbled now along a withered rill</div> - <div class='line'>That issued where old floods had gashed the hill—</div> - <div class='line'>A cyclopean portal yawning sheer.</div> - <div class='line'>No storm of countless hoofs had entered here:</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed a place where nothing ever comes</div> - <div class='line'>But change of season. He could hear the plums</div> - <div class='line'>Plash in the frosted thicket, over-lush;</div> - <div class='line'>While, like a spirit lisping in the hush,</div> - <div class='line'>The crisp leaves whispered round him as they fell.</div> - <div class='line'>And ever now and then the autumn spell</div> - <div class='line'>Was broken by an ululating cry</div> - <div class='line'>From where far back with muzzle to the sky</div> - <div class='line'>The lone dog followed, mourning. Darkness came;</div> - <div class='line'>And huddled up beside a cozy flame,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh’s sleep was but a momentary flight</div> - <div class='line'>Across a little shadow into light.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So day on day he toiled: and when, afloat</div> - <div class='line'>Above the sunset like a stygian boat,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>The new moon bore the spectre of the old,</div> - <div class='line'>He saw—a dwindling strip of blue outrolled—</div> - <div class='line'>The valley of the tortuous Cheyenne.</div> - <div class='line'>And ere the half moon sailed the night again,</div> - <div class='line'>Those far lone leagues had sloughed their garb of blue,</div> - <div class='line'>And dwindled, dwindled, dwindled after Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>Until he saw that Titan of the plains,</div> - <div class='line'>The sinewy Missouri. Dearth of rains</div> - <div class='line'>Had made the Giant gaunt as he who saw.</div> - <div class='line'>This loud Chain-Smasher of a late March thaw</div> - <div class='line'>Seemed never to have bellowed at his banks;</div> - <div class='line'>And yet, with staring ribs and hollow flanks,</div> - <div class='line'>The urge of an indomitable will</div> - <div class='line'>Proclaimed him of the breed of giants still;</div> - <div class='line'>And where the current ran a boiling track,</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas like the muscles of a mighty back</div> - <div class='line'>Grown Atlantean in the wrestler’s craft.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Hugh set to work and built a little raft</div> - <div class='line'>Of driftwood bound with grapevines. So it fell</div> - <div class='line'>That one with an amazing tale to tell</div> - <div class='line'>Came drifting to the gates of Kiowa.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span> - <h2 class='c005'>IV<br /> THE RETURN OF THE GHOST</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Not long Hugh let the lust of vengeance gnaw</div> - <div class='line'>Upon him idling; though the tale he told</div> - <div class='line'>And what report proclaimed him, were as gold</div> - <div class='line'>To buy a winter’s comfort at the Post.</div> - <div class='line'>“I can not rest; for I am but the ghost</div> - <div class='line'>Of someone murdered by a friend,” he said,</div> - <div class='line'>“So long as yonder traitor thinks me dead,</div> - <div class='line'>Aye, buried in the bellies of the crows</div> - <div class='line'>And kiotes!”</div> - <div class='line in14'>Whereupon said one of those</div> - <div class='line'>Who heard him, noting how the old man shook</div> - <div class='line'>As with a chill: “God fend that one should look</div> - <div class='line'>With such a blizzard of a face for me!”</div> - <div class='line'>For he went grayer like a poplar tree</div> - <div class='line'>That shivers, ruffling to the first faint breath</div> - <div class='line'>Of storm, while yet the world is still as death</div> - <div class='line'>Save where, far off, the kenneled thunders bay.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So brooding, he grew stronger day by day,</div> - <div class='line'>Until at last he laid the crutches by.</div> - <div class='line'>And then one evening came a rousing cry</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>From where the year’s last keelboat hove in view</div> - <div class='line'>Around the bend, its swarthy, sweating crew</div> - <div class='line'>Slant to the shouldered line.</div> - <div class='line in28'>Men sang that night</div> - <div class='line'>In Kiowa, and by the ruddy light</div> - <div class='line'>Of leaping fires amid the wooden walls</div> - <div class='line'>The cups went round; and there were merry brawls</div> - <div class='line'>Of bearded lads no older for the beard;</div> - <div class='line'>And laughing stories vied with tales of weird</div> - <div class='line'>By stream and prairie trail and mountain pass,</div> - <div class='line'>Until the tipsy Bourgeois bawled for Glass</div> - <div class='line'>To ‘shame these with a man’s tale fit to hear.’</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The graybeard, sitting where the light was blear,</div> - <div class='line'>With little heart for revelry, began</div> - <div class='line'>His story, told as of another man</div> - <div class='line'>Who, loving late, loved much and was betrayed.</div> - <div class='line'>He spoke unwitting how his passion played</div> - <div class='line'>Upon them, how their eyes grew soft or hard</div> - <div class='line'>With what he told; yet something of the bard</div> - <div class='line'>He seemed, and his the purpose that is art’s,</div> - <div class='line'>Whereby men make a vintage of their hearts</div> - <div class='line'>And with the wine of beauty deaden pain.</div> - <div class='line'>Low-toned, insistent as October rain,</div> - <div class='line'>His voice beat on; and now and then would flit</div> - <div class='line'>Across the melancholy gray of it</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>A glimmer of cold fire that, like the flare</div> - <div class='line'>Of soundless lightning, showed a world made bare,</div> - <div class='line'>Green Summer slain and all its leafage stripped.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And bronze jaws tightened, brawny hands were gripped,</div> - <div class='line'>As though each hearer had a fickle friend.</div> - <div class='line'>But when the old man might have made an end,</div> - <div class='line'>Rounding the story to a peaceful close</div> - <div class='line'>At Kiowa, songlike his voice arose,</div> - <div class='line'>The grinning gray mask lifted and the eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Burned as a bard’s who sees and prophesies,</div> - <div class='line'>Conning the future as a time long gone.</div> - <div class='line'>Swaying to rhythm the dizzy tale plunged on</div> - <div class='line'>Even to the cutting of the traitor’s throat,</div> - <div class='line'>And ceased—as though a bloody strangling smote</div> - <div class='line'>The voice of that gray chanter, drunk with doom.</div> - <div class='line'>And there was shuddering in the blue-smeared gloom</div> - <div class='line'>Of fallen fires. It seemed the deed was done</div> - <div class='line'>Before their eyes who heard.</div> - <div class='line in30'>The morrow’s sun,</div> - <div class='line'>Low over leagues of frost-enchanted plain,</div> - <div class='line'>Saw Glass upon his pilgrimage again,</div> - <div class='line'>Northbound as hunter for the keelboat’s crew.</div> - <div class='line'>And many times the wide autumnal blue</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>Burned out and darkened to a deep of stars;</div> - <div class='line'>And still they toiled among the snags and bars—</div> - <div class='line'>Those lean up-stream men, straining at the rope,</div> - <div class='line'>Lashed by the doubt and strengthened by the hope</div> - <div class='line'>Of backward winter—engines wrought of bone</div> - <div class='line'>And muscle, panting for the Yellowstone,</div> - <div class='line'>Bend after bend and yet more bends away.</div> - <div class='line'>Now was the river like a sandy bay</div> - <div class='line'>At ebb-tide, and the far-off cutbank’s boom</div> - <div class='line'>Mocked them in shallows; now ‘twas like a flume</div> - <div class='line'>With which the toilers, barely creeping, strove.</div> - <div class='line'>And bend by bend the selfsame poplar grove,</div> - <div class='line'>Set on the selfsame headland, so it seemed,</div> - <div class='line'>Confronted them, as though they merely dreamed</div> - <div class='line'>Of passing one drear point.</div> - <div class='line in28'>So on and up</div> - <div class='line'>Past where the tawny Titan gulps the cup</div> - <div class='line'>Of Cheyenne waters, past the Moreau’s mouth;</div> - <div class='line'>And still wry league and stubborn league fell south,</div> - <div class='line'>Becoming haze and weary memory.</div> - <div class='line'>Then past the empty lodges of the Ree</div> - <div class='line'>That gaped at cornfields plundered by the Sioux;</div> - <div class='line'>And there old times came mightily on Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>For much of him was born and buried there.</div> - <div class='line'>Some troubled glory of that wind-tossed hair</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>Was on the trampled corn; the lonely skies,</div> - <div class='line'>So haunted with the blue of Jamie’s eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>Seemed taunting him; and through the frosted wood</div> - <div class='line'>Along the flat, where once their tent had stood,</div> - <div class='line'>A chill wind sorrowed, and the blackbirds’ brawl</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the funeral torches of the Fall</div> - <div class='line'>Ran raucously, a desecrating din.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Past where the Cannon Ball and Heart come in</div> - <div class='line'>They labored. Now the Northwest ‘woke at last.</div> - <div class='line'>The gaunt bluffs bellowed back the trumpet blast</div> - <div class='line'>Of charging winds that made the sandbars smoke.</div> - <div class='line'>To breathe now was to gulp fine sand, and choke:</div> - <div class='line'>The stinging air was sibilant with whips.</div> - <div class='line'>Leaning the more and with the firmer grips,</div> - <div class='line'>Still northward the embattled toilers pressed</div> - <div class='line'>To where the river yaws into the west.</div> - <div class='line'>There stood the Mandan village.</div> - <div class='line in34'>Now began</div> - <div class='line'>The chaining of the Titan. Drift-ice ran.</div> - <div class='line'>The wingéd hounds of Winter ceased to bay.</div> - <div class='line'>The stupor of a doom completed lay</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the world. The biting darkness fell.</div> - <div class='line'>Out in the night, resounding as a well,</div> - <div class='line'>They heard the deck-planks popping in a vise</div> - <div class='line'>Of frost; all night the smithies of the ice</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>Reëchoed with the griding jar and clink</div> - <div class='line'>Of ghostly hammers welding link to link:</div> - <div class='line'>And morning found the world without a sound.</div> - <div class='line'>There lay the stubborn Prairie Titan bound,</div> - <div class='line'>To wait the far-off Heraclean thaw,</div> - <div class='line'>Though still in silent rage he strove to gnaw</div> - <div class='line'>The ragged shackles knitting at his breast.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And so the boatman won a winter’s rest</div> - <div class='line'>Among the Mandan traders: but for Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>There yet remained a weary work to do.</div> - <div class='line'>Across the naked country west by south</div> - <div class='line'>His purpose called him at the Big Horn’s mouth—</div> - <div class='line'>Three hundred miles of winging for the crow;</div> - <div class='line'>But by the river trail that he must go</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas seven hundred winding miles at least.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So now he turned his back upon the feast,</div> - <div class='line'>Snug ease, the pleasant tale, the merry mood,</div> - <div class='line'>And took the bare, foot-sounding solitude</div> - <div class='line'>Northwestward. Long they watched him from the Post,</div> - <div class='line'>Skied on a bluff-rim, fading like a ghost</div> - <div class='line'>At gray cock-crow; and hooded in his breath,</div> - <div class='line'>He seemed indeed a fugitive from Death</div> - <div class='line'>On whom some tatter of the shroud still clung.</div> - <div class='line'>Blank space engulfed him.</div> - <div class='line in22'>Now the moon was young</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>When he set forth; and day by day he strode,</div> - <div class='line'>His scarce healed wounds upon him like a load;</div> - <div class='line'>And dusk by dusk his fire out-flared the moon</div> - <div class='line'>That waxed until it wrought a spectral noon</div> - <div class='line'>At nightfall. Then he came to where, awhirl</div> - <div class='line'>With Spring’s wild rage, the snow-born Titan girl,</div> - <div class='line'>A skyey wonder on her virgin face,</div> - <div class='line'>Receives the virile Yellowstone’s embrace</div> - <div class='line'>And bears the lusty Seeker for the Sea.</div> - <div class='line'>A bleak, horizon-wide serenity</div> - <div class='line'>Clung round the valley where the twain lay dead.</div> - <div class='line'>A winding sheet was on the marriage bed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Twas warmer now; the sky grew overcast;</div> - <div class='line'>And as Hugh strode southwestward, all the vast</div> - <div class='line'>Gray void seemed suddenly astir with wings</div> - <div class='line'>And multitudinary whisperings—</div> - <div class='line'>The muffled sibilance of tumbling snow.</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed no more might living waters flow,</div> - <div class='line'>Moon gleam, star glint, dawn smoulder through, bird sing,</div> - <div class='line'>Or ever any fair familiar thing</div> - <div class='line'>Be so again. The outworn winds were furled.</div> - <div class='line'>Weird weavers of the twilight of a world</div> - <div class='line'>Wrought, thread on kissing thread, the web of doom.</div> - <div class='line'>Grown insubstantial in the knitted gloom,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>The bluffs loomed eerie, and the scanty trees</div> - <div class='line'>Were dwindled to remote dream-traceries</div> - <div class='line'>That never might be green or shield a nest.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All day with swinging stride Hugh forged southwest</div> - <div class='line'>Along the Yellowstone’s smooth-paven stream,</div> - <div class='line'>A dream-shape moving in a troubled dream;</div> - <div class='line'>And all day long the whispering weavers wove.</div> - <div class='line'>And close on dark he came to where a grove</div> - <div class='line'>Of cottonwoods rose tall and shadow-thin</div> - <div class='line'>Against the northern bluffs. He camped therein</div> - <div class='line'>And with cut boughs made shelter as he might.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Close pressed the blackness of the snow-choked night</div> - <div class='line'>About him, and his fire of plum wood purred.</div> - <div class='line'>Athwart a soft penumbral drowse he heard</div> - <div class='line'>The tumbling snowflakes sighing all around,</div> - <div class='line'>Till sleep transformed it to a Summer sound</div> - <div class='line'>Of boyish memory—susurrant bees,</div> - <div class='line'>The Southwind in the tousled apple trees</div> - <div class='line'>And slumber flowing from their leafy gloom.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He wakened to the cottonwoods’ deep boom.</div> - <div class='line'>Black fury was the world. The northwest’s roar,</div> - <div class='line'>As of a surf upon a shipwreck shore,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>Plunged high above him from the sheer bluff’s verge;</div> - <div class='line'>And, like the backward sucking of the surge,</div> - <div class='line'>Far fled the sobbing of the wild snow-spray.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Black blindness grew white blindness—and ‘twas day.</div> - <div class='line'>All being now seemed narrowed to a span</div> - <div class='line'>That held a sputtering wood fire and a man;</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond was tumult and a whirling maze.</div> - <div class='line'>The trees were but a roaring in a haze;</div> - <div class='line'>The sheer bluff-wall that took the blizzard’s charge</div> - <div class='line'>Was thunder flung along the hidden marge</div> - <div class='line'>Of chaos, stridden by the ghost of light.</div> - <div class='line'>White blindness grew black blindness—and ‘twas night</div> - <div class='line'>Wherethrough nor moon nor any star might grope.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Two days since, Hugh had killed an antelope</div> - <div class='line'>And what remained sufficed the time of storm.</div> - <div class='line'>The snow banked round his shelter kept him warm</div> - <div class='line'>And there was wood to burn for many a day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The third dawn, oozing through a smudge of gray,</div> - <div class='line'>Awoke him. It was growing colder fast.</div> - <div class='line'>Still from the bluff high over boomed the blast,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>But now it took the void with numbing wings.</div> - <div class='line'>By noon the woven mystery of things</div> - <div class='line'>Frayed raggedly, and through a sudden rift</div> - <div class='line'>At length Hugh saw the beetling bluff-wall lift</div> - <div class='line'>A sturdy shoulder to the flying rack.</div> - <div class='line'>Slowly the sense of distances came back</div> - <div class='line'>As with the waning day the great wind fell.</div> - <div class='line'>The pale sun set upon a frozen hell.</div> - <div class='line'>The wolves howled.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'>Hugh had left the Mandan town</div> - <div class='line'>When, heifer-horned, the maiden moon lies down</div> - <div class='line'>Beside the sea of evening. Now she rose</div> - <div class='line'>Scar-faced and staring blankly on the snows</div> - <div class='line'>While yet the twilight tarried in the west;</div> - <div class='line'>And more and more she came a tardy guest</div> - <div class='line'>As Hugh pushed onward through the frozen waste</div> - <div class='line'>Until she stole on midnight shadow-faced,</div> - <div class='line'>A haggard spectre; then no more appeared.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Twas on that time the man of hoary beard</div> - <div class='line'>Paused in the early twilight, looming lone</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a bluff-rim of the Yellowstone,</div> - <div class='line'>And peered across the white stream to the south</div> - <div class='line'>Where in the flatland at the Big Horn’s mouth</div> - <div class='line'>The new fort stood that Henry’s men had built.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>What perfect peace for such a nest of guilt!</div> - <div class='line'>What satisfied immunity from woe!</div> - <div class='line'>Yon sprawling shadow, pied with candle-glow</div> - <div class='line'>And plumed with sparkling woodsmoke, might have been</div> - <div class='line'>A homestead with the children gathered in</div> - <div class='line'>To share its bounty through the holidays.</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh saw their faces round the gay hearth-blaze:</div> - <div class='line'>The hale old father in a mood for yarns</div> - <div class='line'>Or boastful of the plenty of his barns,</div> - <div class='line'>Fruitage of honest toil and grateful lands;</div> - <div class='line'>And, half a stranger to her folded hands,</div> - <div class='line'>The mother with October in her hair</div> - <div class='line'>And August in her face. One moment there</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh saw it. Then the monstrous brutal fact</div> - <div class='line'>Wiped out the dream and goaded him to act,</div> - <div class='line'>Though now to act seemed strangely like a dream.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Descending from the bluff, he crossed the stream,</div> - <div class='line'>The dry snow fifing to his eager stride.</div> - <div class='line'>Reaching the fort stockade, he paused to bide</div> - <div class='line'>The passing of a whimsy. Was it true?</div> - <div class='line'>Or was this but the fretted wraith of Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>Whose flesh had fed the kiotes long ago?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Still through a chink he saw the candle-glow,</div> - <div class='line'>So like an eye that brazened out a wrong.</div> - <div class='line'>And now there came a flight of muffled song,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>The rhythmic thudding of a booted heel</div> - <div class='line'>That timed a squeaking fiddle to a reel!</div> - <div class='line'>How swiftly men forget! The spawning Earth</div> - <div class='line'>Is fat with graves; and what is one man worth</div> - <div class='line'>That fiddles should be muted at his fall?</div> - <div class='line'>He should have died and did not—that was all.</div> - <div class='line'>Well, let the living jig it! He would turn</div> - <div class='line'>Back to the night, the spacious unconcern</div> - <div class='line'>Of wilderness that never played the friend.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now came the song and fiddling to an end,</div> - <div class='line'>And someone laughed within. The old man winced,</div> - <div class='line'>Listened with bated breath, and was convinced</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas Jamie laughing! Once again he heard.</div> - <div class='line'>Joy filled a hush ‘twixt heart-beats like a bird;</div> - <div class='line'>Then like a famished cat his lurking hate</div> - <div class='line'>Pounced crushingly.</div> - <div class='line in22'>He found the outer gate,</div> - <div class='line'>Beat on it with his shoulder, raised a cry.</div> - <div class='line'>No doubt ‘twas deemed a fitful wind went by;</div> - <div class='line'>None stirred. But when he did not cease to shout,</div> - <div class='line'>A door creaked open and a man came out</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the spilling candle-glimmer, raised</div> - <div class='line'>The wicket in the outer gate and gazed</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>One moment on a face as white as death,</div> - <div class='line'>Because the beard was thick with frosted breath</div> - <div class='line'>Made mystic by the stars. Then came a gasp,</div> - <div class='line'>The clatter of the falling wicket’s hasp,</div> - <div class='line'>The crunch of panic feet along the snow;</div> - <div class='line'>And someone stammered huskily and low:</div> - <div class='line'>“My God! I saw the Old Man’s ghost out there!”</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas spoken as one speaks who feels his hair</div> - <div class='line'>Prickle the scalp. And then another said—</div> - <div class='line'>It seemed like Henry’s voice—“The dead are dead:</div> - <div class='line'>What talk is this, Le Bon? You saw him die!</div> - <div class='line'>Who’s there?”</div> - <div class='line in12'>Hugh strove to shout, to give the lie</div> - <div class='line'>To those within; but could not fetch a sound.</div> - <div class='line'>Just so he dreamed of lying under ground</div> - <div class='line'>Beside the Grand and hearing overhead</div> - <div class='line'>The talk of men. Or was he really dead,</div> - <div class='line'>And all this but a maggot in the brain?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then suddenly the clatter of a chain</div> - <div class='line'>Aroused him, and he saw the portal yawn</div> - <div class='line'>And saw a bright rectangled patch of dawn</div> - <div class='line'>As through a grave’s mouth—no, ‘twas candlelight</div> - <div class='line'>Poured through the open doorway on the night;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>And those were men before him, bulking black</div> - <div class='line'>Against the glow.</div> - <div class='line in18'>Reality flashed back;</div> - <div class='line'>He strode ahead and entered at the door.</div> - <div class='line'>A falling fiddle jangled on the floor</div> - <div class='line'>And left a deathly silence. On his bench</div> - <div class='line'>The fiddler shrank. A row of eyes, a-blench</div> - <div class='line'>With terror, ran about the naked hall.</div> - <div class='line'>And there was one who huddled by the wall</div> - <div class='line'>And hid his face and shivered.</div> - <div class='line in32'>For a spell</div> - <div class='line'>That silence clung; and then the old man: “Well,</div> - <div class='line'>Is this the sort of welcome that I get?</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas not my time to feed the kiotes yet!</div> - <div class='line'>Put on the pot and stew a chunk of meat</div> - <div class='line'>And you shall see how much a ghost can eat!</div> - <div class='line'>I’ve journeyed far if what I hear be true!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now in that none might doubt the voice of Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor yet the face, however it might seem</div> - <div class='line'>A blurred reflection in a flowing stream,</div> - <div class='line'>A buzz of wonder broke the trance of dread.</div> - <div class='line'>“Good God!” the Major gasped; “We thought you dead!</div> - <div class='line'>Two men have testified they saw you die!”</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>“If they speak truth,” Hugh answered, “then I lie</div> - <div class='line'>Both here and by the Grand. If I be right,</div> - <div class='line'>Then two lie here and shall lie from this night.</div> - <div class='line'>Which are they?”</div> - <div class='line in16'>Henry answered: “Yon is one.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The old man set the trigger of his gun</div> - <div class='line'>And gazed on Jules who cowered by the wall.</div> - <div class='line'>Eyes blinked, expectant of the hammer’s fall;</div> - <div class='line'>Ears strained, anticipative of the roar.</div> - <div class='line'>But Hugh walked leisurely across the floor</div> - <div class='line'>And kicked the croucher, saying: “Come, get up</div> - <div class='line'>And wag your tail! I couldn’t kill a pup!”</div> - <div class='line'>Then turning round: “I had a faithful friend;</div> - <div class='line'>No doubt he too was with me to the end!</div> - <div class='line'>Where’s Jamie?”</div> - <div class='line in16'>“Started out before the snows</div> - <div class='line'>For Atkinson.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span> - <h2 class='c005'>V<br /> JAMIE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in12'>The Country of the Crows,</div> - <div class='line'>Through which the Big Horn and the Rosebud run,</div> - <div class='line'>Sees over mountain peaks the setting sun;</div> - <div class='line'>And southward from the Yellowstone flung wide,</div> - <div class='line'>It broadens ever to the morning side</div> - <div class='line'>And has the Powder on its vague frontier.</div> - <div class='line'>About the subtle changing of the year,</div> - <div class='line'>Ere even favored valleys felt the stir</div> - <div class='line'>Of Spring, and yet expectancy of her</div> - <div class='line'>Was like a pleasant rumor all repeat</div> - <div class='line'>Yet none may prove, the sound of horses’ feet</div> - <div class='line'>Went eastward through the silence of that land.</div> - <div class='line'>For then it was there rode a little band</div> - <div class='line'>Of trappers out of Henry’s Post, to bear</div> - <div class='line'>Dispatches down to Atkinson, and there</div> - <div class='line'>To furnish out a keelboat for the Horn.</div> - <div class='line'>And four went lightly, but the fifth seemed worn</div> - <div class='line'>As with a heavy heart; for that was he</div> - <div class='line'>Who should have died but did not.</div> - <div class='line in38'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>Silently</div> - <div class='line'>He heard the careless parley of his men,</div> - <div class='line'>And thought of how the Spring should come again,</div> - <div class='line'>That garish strumpet with her world-old lure,</div> - <div class='line'>To waken hope where nothing may endure,</div> - <div class='line'>To quicken love where loving is betrayed.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet now and then some dream of Jamie made</div> - <div class='line'>Slow music in him for a little while;</div> - <div class='line'>And they who rode beside him saw a smile</div> - <div class='line'>Glimmer upon that ruined face of gray,</div> - <div class='line'>As on a winter fog the groping day</div> - <div class='line'>Pours glory through a momentary rift.</div> - <div class='line'>Yet never did the gloom that bound him, lift;</div> - <div class='line'>He seemed as one who feeds upon his heart</div> - <div class='line'>And finds, despite the bitter and the smart,</div> - <div class='line'>A little sweetness and is glad for that.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now up the Powder, striking for the Platte</div> - <div class='line'>Across the bleak divide the horsemen went;</div> - <div class='line'>Attained that river where its course is bent</div> - <div class='line'>From north to east: and spurring on apace</div> - <div class='line'>Along the wintry valley, reached the place</div> - <div class='line'>Where from the west flows in the Laramie.</div> - <div class='line'>Thence, fearing to encounter with the Ree,</div> - <div class='line'>They headed eastward through the barren land</div> - <div class='line'>To where, fleet-footed down a track of sand,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>The Niobrara races for the morn—</div> - <div class='line'>A gaunt-loined runner.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'>Here at length was born</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the southern slopes the baby Spring,</div> - <div class='line'>A timid, fretful, ill-begotten thing,</div> - <div class='line'>A-suckle at the Winter’s withered paps:</div> - <div class='line'>Not such as when announced by thunder-claps</div> - <div class='line'>And ringed with swords of lightning, she would ride,</div> - <div class='line'>The haughty victrix and the mystic bride,</div> - <div class='line'>Clad splendidly as never Sheba’s Queen,</div> - <div class='line'>Before her marching multitudes of green</div> - <div class='line'>In many-bannered triumph! Grudging, slow,</div> - <div class='line'>Amid the fraying fringes of the snow</div> - <div class='line'>The bunch-grass sprouted; and the air was chill.</div> - <div class='line'>Along the northern slopes ‘twas winter still,</div> - <div class='line'>And no root dreamed what Triumph-over-Death</div> - <div class='line'>Was nurtured now in some bleak Nazareth</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond the crest to sunward.</div> - <div class='line in30'>On they spurred</div> - <div class='line'>Through vacancies that waited for the bird,</div> - <div class='line'>And everywhere the Odic Presence dwelt.</div> - <div class='line'>The Southwest blew, the snow began to melt;</div> - <div class='line'>And when they reached the valley of the Snake,</div> - <div class='line'>The Niobrara’s ice began to break,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>And all night long and all day long it made</div> - <div class='line'>A sound as of a random cannonade</div> - <div class='line'>With rifles snarling down a skirmish line.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The geese went over. Every tree and vine</div> - <div class='line'>Was dotted thick with leaf-buds when they saw</div> - <div class='line'>The little river of Keyapaha</div> - <div class='line'>Grown mighty for the moment. Then they came,</div> - <div class='line'>One evening when all thickets were aflame</div> - <div class='line'>With pale green witch-fires and the windflowers blew,</div> - <div class='line'>To where the headlong Niobrara threw</div> - <div class='line'>His speed against the swoln Missouri’s flank</div> - <div class='line'>And hurled him roaring to the further bank—</div> - <div class='line'>A giant staggered by a pigmy’s sling.</div> - <div class='line'>Thence, plunging ever deeper into Spring,</div> - <div class='line'>Across the greening prairie east by south</div> - <div class='line'>They rode, and, just above the Platte’s wide mouth,</div> - <div class='line'>Came, weary with the trail, to Atkinson.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There all the vernal wonder-work was done:</div> - <div class='line'>No care-free heart might find aught lacking there.</div> - <div class='line'>The dove’s call wandered in the drowsy air;</div> - <div class='line'>A love-dream brooded in the lucent haze.</div> - <div class='line'>Priapic revellers, the shrieking jays</div> - <div class='line'>Held mystic worship in the secret shade.</div> - <div class='line'>Woodpeckers briskly plied their noisy trade</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>Along the tree-boles, and their scarlet hoods</div> - <div class='line'>Flashed flamelike in the smoky cottonwoods.</div> - <div class='line'>What lacked? Not sweetness in the sun-lulled breeze;</div> - <div class='line'>The plum bloom murmurous with bumblebees</div> - <div class='line'>Was drifted deep in every draw and slough.</div> - <div class='line'>Not color; witcheries of gold and blue</div> - <div class='line'>The dandelion and the violet</div> - <div class='line'>Wove in the green. Might not the sad forget,</div> - <div class='line'>The happy here have nothing more to seek?</div> - <div class='line'>Lo, yonder by that pleasant little creek,</div> - <div class='line'>How one might loll upon the grass and fish</div> - <div class='line'>And build the temple of one’s wildest wish</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twixt nibbles! Surely there was quite enough</div> - <div class='line'>Of wizard-timber and of wonder-stuff</div> - <div class='line'>To rear it nobly to the blue-domed roof!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yet there was one whose spirit stood aloof</div> - <div class='line'>From all this joyousness—a gray old man,</div> - <div class='line'>No nearer now than when the quest began</div> - <div class='line'>To what he sought on that long winter trail.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Aye, Jamie had been there; but when the tale</div> - <div class='line'>That roving trappers brought from Kiowa</div> - <div class='line'>Was told to him, he seemed as one who saw</div> - <div class='line'>A ghost, and could but stare on it, they said:</div> - <div class='line'>Until one day he mounted horse and fled</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>Into the North, a devil-ridden man.</div> - <div class='line'>“I’ve got to go and find him if I can,”</div> - <div class='line'>Was all he said for days before he left.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And what of Hugh? So long of love bereft,</div> - <div class='line'>So long sustained and driven by his hate,</div> - <div class='line'>A touch of ruth now made him desolate.</div> - <div class='line'>No longer eager to avenge the wrong,</div> - <div class='line'>With not enough of pity to be strong</div> - <div class='line'>And just enough of love to choke and sting,</div> - <div class='line'>A gray old hulk amid the surge of Spring</div> - <div class='line'>He floundered on a lee-shore of the heart.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But when the boat was ready for the start</div> - <div class='line'>Up the long watery stairway to the Horn,</div> - <div class='line'>Hugh joined the party. And the year was shorn</div> - <div class='line'>Of blooming girlhood as they forged amain</div> - <div class='line'>Into the North; the late green-mantled plain</div> - <div class='line'>Grew sallow; and the ruthless golden shower</div> - <div class='line'>Of Summer wrought in lust upon the flower</div> - <div class='line'>That withered in the endless martyrdom</div> - <div class='line'>To seed. The scarlet quickened on the plum</div> - <div class='line'>About the Heart’s mouth when they came thereto;</div> - <div class='line'>Among the Mandans grapes were turning blue,</div> - <div class='line'>And they were purple at the Yellowstone.</div> - <div class='line'>A frosted scrub-oak, standing out alone</div> - <div class='line'>Upon a barren bluff top, gazing far</div> - <div class='line'>Above the crossing at the Powder’s bar,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>Was spattered with the blood of Summer slain.</div> - <div class='line'>So it was Autumn in the world again,</div> - <div class='line'>And all those months of toil had yielded nought</div> - <div class='line'>To Hugh. (How often is the seeker sought</div> - <div class='line'>By what he seeks—a blind, heart-breaking game!)</div> - <div class='line'>For always had the answer been the same</div> - <div class='line'>From roving trapper and at trading post:</div> - <div class='line'>Aye, one who seemed to stare upon a ghost</div> - <div class='line'>And followed willy-nilly where it led,</div> - <div class='line'>Had gone that way in search of Hugh, they said—</div> - <div class='line'>A haggard, blue-eyed, yellow-headed chap.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And often had the old man thought, ‘Mayhap</div> - <div class='line'>He’ll be at Henry’s Post and we shall meet;</div> - <div class='line'>And to forgive and to forget were sweet:</div> - <div class='line'>‘Tis for its nurse that Vengeance whets the tooth!</div> - <div class='line'>And oh the golden time of Jamie’s youth,</div> - <div class='line'>That it should darken for a graybeard’s whim!’</div> - <div class='line'>So Hugh had brooded, till there came on him</div> - <div class='line'>The pity of a slow rain after drouth.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But at the crossing of the Rosebud’s mouth</div> - <div class='line'>A shadow fell upon his growing dream.</div> - <div class='line'>A band of Henry’s traders, bound down stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Who paused to traffic in the latest word—</div> - <div class='line'>Down-river news for matters seen and heard</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>In higher waters—had not met the lad,</div> - <div class='line'>Not yet encountered anyone who had.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Alas, the journey back to yesterwhiles!</div> - <div class='line'>How tangled are the trails! The stubborn miles,</div> - <div class='line'>How wearily they stretch! And if one win</div> - <div class='line'>The long way back in search of what has been,</div> - <div class='line'>Shall he find aught that is not strange and new?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Thus wrought the melancholy news in Hugh,</div> - <div class='line'>As he turned back with those who brought the news;</div> - <div class='line'>For more and more he dreaded now to lose</div> - <div class='line'>What doubtful seeking rendered doubly dear.</div> - <div class='line'>And in the time when keen winds stripped the year</div> - <div class='line'>He came with those to where the Poplar joins</div> - <div class='line'>The greater river. There Assinoboines,</div> - <div class='line'>Rich from the Summer’s hunting, had come down</div> - <div class='line'>And flung along the flat their ragged town,</div> - <div class='line'>That traders might bring goods and winter there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So leave the heartsick graybeard. Otherwhere</div> - <div class='line'>The final curtain rises on the play.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Tis dead of Winter now. For day on day</div> - <div class='line'>The blizzard wind has thundered, sweeping wide</div> - <div class='line'>From Mississippi to the Great Divide</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>Out of the North beyond Saskatchewan.</div> - <div class='line'>Brief evening glimmers like an inverse dawn</div> - <div class='line'>After a long white night. The tempest dies;</div> - <div class='line'>The snow-haze lifts. Now let the curtain rise</div> - <div class='line'>Upon Milk River valley, and reveal</div> - <div class='line'>The stars like broken glass on frosted steel</div> - <div class='line'>Above the Piegan lodges, huddled deep</div> - <div class='line'>In snowdrifts, like a freezing flock of sheep.</div> - <div class='line'>A crystal weight the dread cold crushes down</div> - <div class='line'>And no one moves about the little town</div> - <div class='line'>That seems to grovel as a thing that fears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But see! a lodge-flap swings; a squaw appears,</div> - <div class='line'>Hunched with the sudden cold. Her footsteps creak</div> - <div class='line'>Shrill in the hush. She stares upon the bleak,</div> - <div class='line'>White skyline for a moment, then goes in.</div> - <div class='line'>We follow her, push back the flap of skin,</div> - <div class='line'>Enter the lodge, inhale the smoke-tanged air</div> - <div class='line'>And blink upon the little faggot-flare</div> - <div class='line'>That blossoms in the center of the room.</div> - <div class='line'>Unsteady shadows haunt the outer gloom</div> - <div class='line'>Wherein the walls are guessed at. Upward, far,</div> - <div class='line'>The smoke-vent now and then reveals a star</div> - <div class='line'>As in a well. The ancient squaw, a-stoop,</div> - <div class='line'>Her face light-stricken, stirs a pot of soup</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>That simmers with a pleasant smell and sound.</div> - <div class='line'>A gnarled old man, cross-legged upon the ground,</div> - <div class='line'>Sits brooding near. He feeds the flame with sticks;</div> - <div class='line'>It brightens. Lo, a leaden crucifix</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the wall! These heathen eyes, though dim,</div> - <div class='line'>Have seen the white man’s God and cling to Him,</div> - <div class='line'>Lest on the sunset trail slow feet should err.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But look again. From yonder bed of fur</div> - <div class='line'>Beside the wall a white man strives to rise.</div> - <div class='line'>He lifts his head, with yearning sightless eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Gropes for the light. A mass of golden hair</div> - <div class='line'>Falls round the face that sickness and despair</div> - <div class='line'>Somehow make old, albeit he is young.</div> - <div class='line'>His weak voice, stumbling to the mongrel tongue</div> - <div class='line'>Of traders, flings a question to the squaw:</div> - <div class='line'>“You saw no Black Robe? Tell me what you saw!”</div> - <div class='line'>And she, brief-spoken as her race, replies:</div> - <div class='line'>“Heaped snow—sharp stars—a kiote on the rise.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The blind youth huddles moaning in the furs.</div> - <div class='line'>The firewood spits and pops, the boiled pot purrs</div> - <div class='line'>And sputters. On this little isle of sound</div> - <div class='line'>The sea of winter silence presses round—</div> - <div class='line'>One feels it like a menace.</div> - <div class='line in28'><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>Now the crone</div> - <div class='line'>Dips out a cup of soup, and having blown</div> - <div class='line'>Upon it, takes it to the sick man there</div> - <div class='line'>And bids him eat. With wild, unseeing stare</div> - <div class='line'>He turns upon her: “Why are they so long?</div> - <div class='line'>I can not eat! I’ve done a mighty wrong;</div> - <div class='line'>It chokes me! Oh no, no, I must not die</div> - <div class='line'>Until the Black Robe comes!” His feeble cry</div> - <div class='line'>Sinks to a whisper. “Tell me, did they go—</div> - <div class='line'>Your kinsmen?”</div> - <div class='line in14'>“They went south before the snow.”</div> - <div class='line'>“And will they tell the Black Robe?”</div> - <div class='line in32'>“They will tell.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The crackling of the faggots for a spell</div> - <div class='line'>Seems very loud. Again the sick man moans</div> - <div class='line'>And, struggling with the weakness in his bones,</div> - <div class='line'>Would gain his feet, but can not. “Go again,</div> - <div class='line'>And tell me that you see the bulks of men</div> - <div class='line'>Dim in the distance there.”</div> - <div class='line in30'>The squaw obeys;</div> - <div class='line'>Returns anon to crouch beside the blaze,</div> - <div class='line'>Numb-fingered and a-shudder from the night.</div> - <div class='line'>The vacant eyes that hunger for the light</div> - <div class='line'>Are turned upon her: “Tell me what you saw!</div> - <div class='line'>Or maybe snowshoes sounded up the draw.</div> - <div class='line'>Quick, tell me what you saw and heard out there!”</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>“Heaped snow—sharp stars—big stillness everywhere.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>One clutching at thin ice with numbing grip</div> - <div class='line'>Cries while he hopes; but when his fingers slip,</div> - <div class='line'>He takes the final plunge without a sound.</div> - <div class='line'>So sinks the youth now, hopeless. All around</div> - <div class='line'>The winter silence presses in; the walls</div> - <div class='line'>Grow vague and vanish in the gloom that crawls</div> - <div class='line'>Close to the failing fire.</div> - <div class='line in28'>The Piegans sleep.</div> - <div class='line'>Night hovers midway down the morning steep.</div> - <div class='line'>The sick man drowses. Nervously he starts</div> - <div class='line'>And listens; hears no sound except his heart’s</div> - <div class='line'>And that weird murmur brooding stillness makes.</div> - <div class='line'>But stealthily upon the quiet breaks—</div> - <div class='line'>Vague as the coursing of the hearer’s blood—</div> - <div class='line'>A muffled, rhythmic beating, thud on thud,</div> - <div class='line'>That, growing nearer, deepens to a crunch.</div> - <div class='line'>So, hungry for the distance, snowshoes munch</div> - <div class='line'>The crusted leagues of Winter, stride by stride.</div> - <div class='line'>A camp-dog barks; the hollow world outside</div> - <div class='line'>Brims with the running howl of many curs.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now wide-awake, half risen in the furs,</div> - <div class='line'>The youth can hear low voices and the creak</div> - <div class='line'>Of snowshoes near the lodge. His thin, wild shriek</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>Startles the old folk from their slumberings:</div> - <div class='line'>“He comes! The Black Robe!”</div> - <div class='line in24'>Now the door-flap swings,</div> - <div class='line'>And briefly one who splutters Piegan, bars</div> - <div class='line'>The way, then enters. Now the patch of stars</div> - <div class='line'>Is darkened with a greater bulk that bends</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath the lintel. “Peace be with you, friends!</div> - <div class='line'>And peace with him herein who suffers pain!”</div> - <div class='line'>So speaks the second comer of the twain—</div> - <div class='line'>A white man by his voice. And he who lies</div> - <div class='line'>Beside the wall, with empty, groping eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Turned to the speaker: “There can be no peace</div> - <div class='line'>For me, good Father, till this gnawing cease—</div> - <div class='line'>The gnawing of a great wrong I have done.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The big man leans above the youth: “My son—”</div> - <div class='line'>(Grown husky with the word, the deep voice breaks,</div> - <div class='line'>And for a little spell the whole man shakes</div> - <div class='line'>As with the clinging cold) “—have faith and hope!</div> - <div class='line'>‘Tis often nearest dawn when most we grope.</div> - <div class='line'>Does not the Good Book say, Who seek shall find?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“But, Father, I am broken now and blind,</div> - <div class='line'>And I have sought, and I have lost the way.”</div> - <div class='line'>To which the stranger: “What would Jesus say?</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>Hark! In the silence of the heart ‘tis said—</div> - <div class='line'>By their own weakness are the feeble sped;</div> - <div class='line'>The humblest feet are surest for the goal;</div> - <div class='line'>The blind shall see the City of the Soul.</div> - <div class='line'>Lay down your burden at His feet to-night.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now while the fire, replenished, bathes in light</div> - <div class='line'>The young face scrawled with suffering and care,</div> - <div class='line'>Flinging ironic glories on the hair</div> - <div class='line'>And glinting on dull eyes that once flashed blue,</div> - <div class='line'>The sick one tells the story of old Hugh</div> - <div class='line'>To him whose face, averted from the glow,</div> - <div class='line'>Still lurks in gloom. The winds of battle blow</div> - <div class='line'>Once more along the steep. Again one sees</div> - <div class='line'>The rescue from the fury of the Rees,</div> - <div class='line'>The graybeard’s fondness for the gay lad; then</div> - <div class='line'>The westward march with Major Henry’s men</div> - <div class='line'>With all that happened there upon the Grand.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And so we hit the trail of Henry’s band,”</div> - <div class='line'>The youth continues; “for we feared to die:</div> - <div class='line'>And dread of shame was ready with the lie</div> - <div class='line'>We carried to our comrades. Hugh was dead</div> - <div class='line'>And buried there beside the Grand, we said.</div> - <div class='line'>Could any doubt that what we said was true?</div> - <div class='line'>They even praised our courage! But I knew!</div> - <div class='line'>The nights were hell because I heard his cries</div> - <div class='line'>And saw the crows a-pecking at his eyes,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>The kiotes tearing at him. O my God!</div> - <div class='line'>I tried and tried to think him under sod;</div> - <div class='line'>But every time I slept it was the same.</div> - <div class='line'>And then one night—I lay awake—he came!</div> - <div class='line'>I say he came—I know I hadn’t slept!</div> - <div class='line'>Amid a light like rainy dawn, he crept</div> - <div class='line'>Out of the dark upon his hands and knees.</div> - <div class='line'>The wound he got that day among the Rees</div> - <div class='line'>Was like red fire. A snarl of bloody hair</div> - <div class='line'>Hung round the eyes that had a pleading stare,</div> - <div class='line'>And down the ruined face and gory beard</div> - <div class='line'>Big tear-drops rolled. He went as he appeared,</div> - <div class='line'>Trailing a fog of light that died away.</div> - <div class='line'>And I grew old before I saw the day.</div> - <div class='line'>O Father, I had paid too much for breath!</div> - <div class='line'>The Devil traffics in the fear of death,</div> - <div class='line'>And may God pity anyone who buys</div> - <div class='line'>What I have bought with treachery and lies—</div> - <div class='line'>This rat-like gnawing in my breast!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in36'>“I knew</div> - <div class='line'>I couldn’t rest until I buried Hugh;</div> - <div class='line'>And so I told the Major I would go</div> - <div class='line'>To Atkinson with letters, ere the snow</div> - <div class='line'>Had choked the trails. Jules wouldn’t come along;</div> - <div class='line'>He didn’t seem to realize the wrong;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>He called me foolish, couldn’t understand.</div> - <div class='line'>I rode alone—not south, but to the Grand.</div> - <div class='line'>Daylong my horse beat thunder from the sod,</div> - <div class='line'>Accusing me; and all my prayers to God</div> - <div class='line'>Seemed flung in vain at bolted gates of brass.</div> - <div class='line'>And in the night the wind among the grass</div> - <div class='line'>Hissed endlessly the story of my shame.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I do not know how long I rode: I came</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the Grand at last, and found the place,</div> - <div class='line'>And it was empty. Not a sign or trace</div> - <div class='line'>Was left to show what end had come to Hugh.</div> - <div class='line'>And oh that grave! It gaped upon the blue,</div> - <div class='line'>A death-wound pleading dumbly for the slain.</div> - <div class='line'>I filled it up and fled across the plain,</div> - <div class='line'>And somehow came to Atkinson at last.</div> - <div class='line'>And there I heard the living Hugh had passed</div> - <div class='line'>Along the river northward in the Fall!</div> - <div class='line'>O Father, he had found the strength to crawl</div> - <div class='line'>That long, heart-breaking distance back to life,</div> - <div class='line'>Though Jules had taken blanket, steel and knife,</div> - <div class='line'>And I, his trusted comrade, had his gun!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“They said I’d better stay at Atkinson,</div> - <div class='line'>Because old Hugh was surely hunting me,</div> - <div class='line'>White-hot to kill. I did not want to flee</div> - <div class='line'>Or hide from him. I even wished to die,</div> - <div class='line'>If so this aching cancer of a lie</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>Might be torn out forever. So I went,</div> - <div class='line'>As eager as the homesick homeward bent,</div> - <div class='line'>In search of him and peace.</div> - <div class='line in28'>But I was cursed.</div> - <div class='line'>For even when his stolen rifle burst</div> - <div class='line'>And spewed upon me this eternal night,</div> - <div class='line'>I might not die as any other might;</div> - <div class='line'>But God so willed that friendly Piegans came</div> - <div class='line'>To spare me yet a little unto shame.</div> - <div class='line'>O Father, is there any hope for me?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Great hope indeed, my son!” so huskily</div> - <div class='line'>The other answers. “I recall a case</div> - <div class='line'>Like yours—no matter what the time and place—</div> - <div class='line'>‘Twas somewhat like the story that you tell;</div> - <div class='line'>Each seeking and each sought, and both in hell;</div> - <div class='line'>But in the tale I mind, they met at last.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The youth sits up, white-faced and breathing fast:</div> - <div class='line'>“They met, you say? What happened? Quick! Oh quick!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The old man found the dear lad blind and sick</div> - <div class='line'>And both forgave—‘twas easy to forgive—</div> - <div class='line'>For oh we have so short a time to live—”</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>Whereat the youth: “Who’s here? The Black Robe’s gone!</div> - <div class='line'>Whose voice is this?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in20'>The gray of winter dawn</div> - <div class='line'>Now creeping round the door-flap, lights the place</div> - <div class='line'>And shows thin fingers groping for a face</div> - <div class='line'>Deep-scarred and hoary with the frost of years</div> - <div class='line'>Whereover runs a new springtide of tears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O Jamie, Jamie, Jamie—I am Hugh!</div> - <div class='line'>There was no Black Robe yonder—Will I do?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span> - <h2 class='c005'>NOTES</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='sc'>By Julius T. House, Ph.D.</span> (Chicago)</div> - <div class='c003'>Head of the Department of English at the State Normal School, Wayne, Nebraska</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span> -<img src='images/i_001.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p><span class='sc'>Map showing the route of Hugh Glass in his search for Jamie. The “first trail,” running northward from Fort Kiowa, traces the hero’s wanderings up to his arrival at Fort Atkinson (page <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>). The “second trail” indicates Hugh’s journey from that point to his meeting with the boy among the Piegans. Fort Atkinson was situated on the west bank of the Missouri River sixteen miles up-stream from where Omaha now stands.</span></p> -</div> -</div> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span></div> -<div class='ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>NOTES</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<h3 class='c012'><span class='sc'>Graybeard and Goldhair</span></h3> - -<p class='c013'>Before beginning the poem carefully read the Introduction.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_1'>1</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>In the study of this poem it is necessary to learn the geography and topography of the country. Define “topography.” Tell about Leavenworth Campaign; Major Henry.</p> - -<p class='c016'>The story of Hugh Glass is historical and may be found in the following works: Chittenden’s History of the American Fur Trade, New York, 1902; Sage’s Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, Boston, 1857; Ruxton’s Adventures in Mexico, London, 1847; Howe’s Historical Collections of the Great West, Cincinnati, 1857; Cooke’s Scenes and Adventures in the U. S. Army, Philadelphia, 1857; The Missouri Intelligencer for June 18, 1825. Accounts of the death of Hugh Glass, in 1832, are given in The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, London, 1892, and in Maximilian’s Travels, London, 1843.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>2.</b> ‘Twas when the guns that blustered at the Ree</p> - -<p class='c017'>Ree—Aricara or Rickaree Indians. Locate them in 1823.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Where are they now?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> Had ceased to brag, and ten score martial clowns</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “clowns”? See Introduction.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> A withering blast the arid South still blew,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is “South”? Why capitalized? Did Homer and Vergil -personify the winds?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Southward before the Great White Hunter’s face:</p> - -<p class='c017'>Who is the Great White Hunter? What is the time of year?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span><b>13.</b> With eighty trappers up the dwindling Grand,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “dwindling”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Bound through the weird, unfriending barren-land</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Unfriending” whom?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> For where the Big Horn meets the Yellowstone;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the junction of the streams.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_2'>2</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Deep-chested, that his great heart might have play,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Describe Hugh Glass. Hugh’s physical characteristics are drawn -in large lines. Compare this with the more elaborate descriptions -of persons in other books. Which is more effective?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>2.</b> Gray-bearded, gray of eye and crowned with gray</p> - -<p class='c017'>Our author’s descriptions leave much room for the play of the -reader’s imagination. Is this method effective with you?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> And, for the grudging habit of his tongue,</p> - -<p class='c017'>“For”—by reason of.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> And hate in him was like a still, white hell,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “white”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> A thing of doom not lightly reconciled.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What does “reconciled” modify? What is this figure called?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Old Hugh stared long upon the pictured blaze,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What were the pictures Hugh saw in the blaze? Would you like -to know more of Hugh’s past? Why does not the author tell us -more concerning it?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> The veil was rent, and briefly men discerned</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “veil”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Beneath the still gray smoldering of him.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What figure in “still gray smoldering”? Was Hugh a good -fighter? A man whose anger was to be feared?</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_3'>3</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> So, tardily, outflowered the wild blond strain</p> - -<p class='c017'>Whence the “wild blond strain”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> A Ganymedes haunted by a Goth</p> - -<p class='c017'>Who was Ganymedes? The Goths?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> When the restive ghost was laid,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the “restive ghost”? How old was Jamie?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> When Ashley stormed a bluff town of the Ree,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Who was Ashley? See Introduction.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Yet, hardly courage, but blind rage agrope</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is courage?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Tore off the gray mask, and the heart shone through.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the “gray mask”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> For, halting in a dry, flood-guttered draw,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “draw” as here used. How does it differ from “ravine”? -from “gully”?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>24.</b> As though spring-fire should waken out of snow.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain the figure.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_5'>5</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> So with their sons are women brought to bed,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Of whom is Hugh thinking when he uses these words?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Nor could these know what mocking ghost of Spring</p> - -<p class='c017'>Express in other words the idea contained in “mocking ghost -of Spring.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> So might a dawn-struck digit of the moon</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain the figure and interpret it in terms of Hugh’s feelings for -Jamie.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span><b>18.</b> And ache through all its craters to be green.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the present condition of the surface of the moon?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> Pang dwelling in a puckered cicatrice</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “cicatrice.” Explain the figure.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Yet very precious was the hurt thereof,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Grievous to bear, too dear to cast away.</p> - -<p class='c017'>These lines constitute a paradox. Define “paradox.” Explain -the meaning of the lines. Can pain be “precious”?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_6'>6</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>What lines in this page forecast an approaching disaster? Can you -recall such forecasts in other pieces of literature?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> A phantom April over melting snow,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “phantom” April?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Deep in the North some new white wrath is brewed.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Express the meaning of this line in other language. How does -it apply to the story?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Tales jaggéd with the bleak unstudied word,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Was the language of Hugh’s stories polished? Effective? Are -men natural story tellers? Answer from your own experience.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What does the life of primitive man tell us with regard to the -matter?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Stark saga-stuff.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “saga.” What is meant by the words: “stark saga-stuff”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> A mere pelt merchant, as it seemed to him;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: pelt, epic, whist. Is “Hugh Glass” epic in material -and form?</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_7'>7</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Which of these men loves the other more? In case of severe trial will -each be true to the other? Is either likely to be vengeful? unforgiving? -fickle?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> That myth that somehow had to be the truth,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is “that myth”? What feeling is expressed in “had to be -the truth”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> Yet could not be convincing any more.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why could it not “be convincing any more”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> And so with merry jest the old man went;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note in the passage the second forecast of disaster.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_8'>8</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>9.</b> The dusty progress of the cavalcade</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> The journey of a snail flock to the moon;</p> - -<p class='c017'>What feeling in Jamie is made clear in this figure?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Until the shadow-weaving afternoon</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain the figure “shadow-weaving afternoon,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Hoofbeats of ghostly steeds on every hill,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Mysterious, muffled hoofs on every bluff!</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Spurred echo horses clattering up the rough, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain “hoofbeats of ghostly steeds,” “muffled hoofs,” “echo -horses.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> The lagging air droned like the drowsy word</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “drowsy” word? The transfer of an epithet is called a -“trope,” from a Greek word meaning <em>to turn</em>.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Lean galloper in a wind of splendid deeds,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the vivid imagery and the effect of the broken meter.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span><b>4.</b> The horse stopped short—then Jamie was aware, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What gives the effect of loneliness in these lines?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the effect of vast stretches of space in the use of the names -of heavenly bodies to denote the points of the compass. A sense -of the infinity of space arises often in the reader of this poem.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Any imaginative person feels this sense ever deepening upon him -on looking long at the prairies.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Save for a welter of cawing crows,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect of the cawing of the crows in the general stillness?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note that the meter is intentionally changed. What effect?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> One faint star, set above the fading blush, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect of the mention of the star and its growing from -faint to clear?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> For answer, the horse neighed.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect of the neighing of the horse?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Some vague mistrust now made him half afraid, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Mistrust of what? Is disaster near?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_10'>10</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> “Somewhere about the forks as like as not;</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>2.</b> And there’ll be hunks of fresh meat steaming hot,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> And fighting stories by a dying fire!”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why does Jamie talk to himself?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> The sunset reared a luminous phantom spire</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> That, crumbling, sifted ashes down the sky.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect of these two lines?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> And in the vast denial of the hush</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> The champing of the snaffled horse seemed loud.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect of these two lines? What is the “vast denial”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why mention “the champing of the horse”? Pages <a href='#Page_9'>9</a> and <a href='#Page_10'>10</a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>are used to induce in the reader a sense of extreme loneliness.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Where is the climax? What devices have been employed for the -purpose?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> The laggard air was like a voice that sang,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why is the air now as a voice that sings rather than drowsy and -weird?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> And Jamie half believed he sniffed the tang</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Of woodsmoke and the smell of flesh a-roast;</p> - -<p class='c017'>These lines indicate the lad’s eagerness.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> And in the whirlwind of a moment there, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Could Jamie perceive so much in so brief a time under such circumstances? -Does the picture in “huddled, broken thing” -seem realistic?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> A landscape stares with every circumstance etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Jamie’s experience in the preceding lines is here explained. Did -you ever notice how plainly things stand out in a flare of lightning?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Then before his eyes, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Is this consistent with the part of Jamie in the fight with the -Rees?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> Heard the brush crash etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Onomatopœia. Define “rubble.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_12'>12</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> A swift thought swept the mind of Jamie clear, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Is the change in Jamie from anger to coolness good psychology?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span><b>8.</b> Swerved sharply streamward. Sliddering in the sand,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note onomatopœia. How did Jamie elude the bear?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Like some vague shape of fury in a dream,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why did the sight of the bear seem thus to Jamie?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> Would think of such a “trick of getting game”!</p> - -<p class='c017'>For a moment Jamie feels as if Hugh were still living and he can -now triumph in his skill. Was that natural in a boy?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> Like a dull blade thrust back into a wound.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Memory of sorrow “like a dull blade,” etc. Is that true to life?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> Like some familiar face gone strange at last.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Meaning of “gone strange at last”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>In this and the next three pages note the sincerity and the boyishness -of Jamie’s affection and grief. It is necessary to understand -Jamie now that the reader may interpret his later conduct.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: eld, blear.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>6.</b> Had wiped the pictured features from a slate! etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note two powerful similes in these lines. Do they convey adequately -the horror of the spectator? This “ruined face” of -Hugh’s has much in the remainder of the story. The lines -are not pleasant to read, but life is not always pleasant. Homer -and Shakespeare often wrote lines that shock by their naked -truth.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Still painted upon black that alien stare</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “alien stare”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> To make the lad more terribly alone.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “more terribly alone”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span><b>21.</b> Pale vagrants from the legendry of death</p> - -<p class='c017'>Pale vagrants, <em>i.e.</em> ghosts.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: funereal, alien, legendry, potential.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>6.</b> For, though the graybeard fought with sobbing breath, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A wrestling match in which death has a “strangling grip” on -Hugh. Note the vividness of physical imagery, “neck veins -like a purple thong tangled with knots.” What biblical allusion -in “break upon the hip”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> There where the trail forked outward far and dim;</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “trail forked outward”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> His moan went treble like a song of pain,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Does the voice become like a shrill song under such circumstances?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> For dying is a game of solitaire, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A grim epigram.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: treble, solitaire.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The rest of this division of the poem develops the catastrophe of -cowardice and treachery. The elements of it are (1) Jamie’s youthfulness -and unsettled character, (2) Le Bon’s ability to play upon his -weakness, (3) the actual nearness of the Rees, (4) the apparently hopeless -condition of Hugh prolonged over several days.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> That mercenary motives prompted him.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Do you believe the protestations of Jules that mercenary motives -do not prompt him? Does he “protest too much”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> The Rickarees were scattered to the West:</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why mention the Indians so early?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span><b>19.</b> Three days a southwest wind may blow</p> - -<p class='c017'>A southwest wind on the plains is always warm, and seldom -carries rain.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain the application.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_19'>19</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Why does Jules talk always as though the death of Hugh were certain?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> Unnumbered tales accordant with the case,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Do you think Le Bon knew these tales?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> A bear’s hug—ugh!’ And Jamie winced etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the effect on Jamie?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: dialectic, colophon.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_20'>20</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> So summoning a mood etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How do Le Bon’s stories change as night comes on? Is his -psychology effective? Note the increase in the fears of Jamie.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Of men outnumbered: and like him of old, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Him of old”—Æneas in Æneid, Book II.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Gray-souled, he wakened to a dawn of gray,</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Gray-souled”—meaning? “A poet is known by his epithets.”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: lugubriously, garrulous.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> And felt that something strong had gone away.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What strong thing had gone away?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> Jules, snug and snoring in his blanket there, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Is it natural that the conscious living Jules should seem more -real to the boy than his unconscious friend?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> Just so, pain etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the epigram. Is it a true one?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span><b>14.</b> But grappled with the angel.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Jacob in Genesis.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Many men May tower, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Would such a statement be peculiarly true of a boy like Jamie?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Recall his conduct in the Ree fight.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Nor might a fire be lit,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the shrewdness of Jules in failing to light a fire.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>What shows that Jamie is at the breaking point?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> And with it lulled the fight, as on a field, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The crisis of the disease.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> It would soon be o’er, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Jules talks in sentimental vein. Sentimental people are very -often cruel.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> To dig a hole that might conceal a man;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Would Jamie have resented the digging of a grave four days -earlier?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Jules easily weeps. So do many insincere people.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: beleaguered, mutability, immemorial, funerary.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGES <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>–<a href='#Page_25'>25</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The last stage of Jamie’s breakdown.</p> - -<p class='c016'>Had you any doubt that Jules would beget panic in Jamie? How -much do you blame Jamie? Why did Le Bon take Hugh’s gun, blanket, -and knife?</p> - -<h3 class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Awakening</span></h3> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_26'>26</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Note that the last line of the first division of the poem rhymes with -the first line of the second division. Have you noticed that many times -the rhyming lines close one paragraph and open the next? The effect -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>of this device is to keep the mind of the reader in strain for what is to -follow.</p> - -<p class='c016'>What is a couplet? Is the poem written in couplets? How is the -cæsura handled in this poem? Compare with Pope’s method in -“Essay on Man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> But some globose immensity of blue</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note epithets in this line. How comprehensive!</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> So one late plunged into the lethal sleep, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The sensation of the awakening is likened to the possible experience -of one in death. The author is much interested in such -matters.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “lethal.” What literary associations with this word?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> The quiet steep-arched splendor of the day.</p> - -<p class='c017'>At what time of day did Hugh awake?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> But when he would obey, the hollow skies etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the suddenness of the loss of consciousness as expressed in -the metaphor: “the hollow skies,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> Remote unto his horizontal gaze</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> He saw the world’s end kindle to a blaze etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>At what time did Hugh re-awaken?</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect upon the reader of the expression “world’s -end” rather than “east”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Dawn found the darkling reaches of his mind, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A figure from archæology. Explain.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Men school the dream to build the past anew</p> - -<p class='c017'>What part of speech is “school”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Wherein men talked as ghosts above a grave.</p> - -<p class='c017'>This is the second suggestion that Hugh was vaguely conscious -of what happened before his awakening.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: shards, torsos, rubble, sag.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_28'>28</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>5.</b> Sickened with torture he lay huddled there.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the vividness of such words as, “sickened,” “torture,” -“huddled,” which appeal both to muscular sense and to sight.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> Proportioned to the might that felt the chain.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> That vacancy about him like a wall, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The power of that which yields and yet restrains suggests the -sense of helplessness that came to Hugh. This feeling is often -brought out in the later portions of the poem.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Grimly amused, he raised his head, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the effect of “the empty distance” and “the twitter -of a lonely bird” on Hugh? Why question whether there was -something wrong?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: collusive, bleak.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_29'>29</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>On this and the following page we have the stages by which Hugh -learns that he has been deserted. Note the steps: (1) Major Henry is -prompt, (2) many hoof prints of horses, (3) the grave known for a grave -by its shape, (4) ash heap and litter of a camp, (5) the trail.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> Of course the horse had bolted</p> - -<p class='c017'>That is, run away.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> A grave—a grave, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Does Hugh really wonder if he has been dead and has arisen?</p> - -<p class='c017'>For the third time it is stated that Hugh heard the talk of his -comrades while he was prostrate from the bear’s attack.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>25.</b> Suspicion, like a little smoky lamp etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note simile. Is it effective?</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_30'>30</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> That daubs the murk but cannot fathom it,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh’s suspicions are vague as yet.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> The smoky glow flared wildly,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “smoky glow”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> A gloom-devouring ecstasy of flame,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> A dazing conflagration of belief!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Suspicion passes to certainty. Explain the whole figure from -the beginning.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Plunged deeper than the seats of hate and grief, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Does nature sometimes seem to mock our moods? The older -literatures seem unconscious of this psychology. Note Bryant’s -“Death of the Flowers.”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: daub, grotesque, ecstasy, apathetic, complacence, connivance.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_31'>31</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> His manifest betrayal by a friend</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why does the desertion of Jamie make that of others seem nothing?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Yet not as they for whom tears fall like dew etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh’s tears are not shallow; they indicate a lasting sorrow.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Those who weep easily, easily forget.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> He lay, a gray old ruin of a man, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Both physically and emotionally, a remarkable metaphor.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> And then at length, as from the long ago, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>His suffering makes the time of friendship seem long ago. A -song may be both sweet and sad, as may also love.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>25.</b> ... as in a foggy night</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> The witchery of semilunar light, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A fine comparison of the spiritual to the material.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: zany, retrospective.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span><b>6.</b> As under snow the dæmon of the Spring.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Dæmon,” spirit.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> Nor might treachery recall, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>He had been loved, nothing could change that; he could go on -loving and nothing could change that either. This is the high -note in devotion. “If ye love them that love you, what thank -have ye?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Upon the vessel of a hope so great, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The lover is only the vessel of the great passion.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> Now, as before, collusive sky and plain etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Sky and plain have conspired to take Hugh’s life, so it seems to -him. They represent distance that yields but still is unconquered. -This idea haunts the “Crawl.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> For, after all, what thing do men desire, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Food and shelter are necessary to any life; all values rest upon -them. This idea is fundamental in modern thinking.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Jamie was a thief!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why Jamie more than others?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “gage.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_34'>34</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>5.</b> And through his veins regenerating fire etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Anger made him strong, while grief made him weak. Is that -not true to nature?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> Now once again he scanned the yellow plain, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh projects his subjective condition on nature. This idea -occurs often in the poem. Is it a true conception?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span><b>14.</b> Alas for those who fondly place above, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A continuation of the philosophy found on page <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>. Love is the -supreme thing, not the person who is loved. The way is itself -the goal.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> A bitter-sweet narcotic to the will, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note how Hugh’s hate arouses his energies. For his purposes it -is stronger than love.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: bellowsed, regenerating, lethargy, conspirant, merging, -vulnerable, narcotic.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_35'>35</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>11.</b> Leaning to the spring, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The final horror, his face, fixes Hugh’s hate to a steady, burning -purpose, seeming equal to his task.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_36'>36</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>5.</b> That waste to be surmounted as a wall,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> Sky-rims and yet more sky-rims steep to climb—</p> - -<p class='c017'>In gazing across a vast space to the horizon, one seems to be -looking uphill. This is especially noticeable on the ocean.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> That simulacrum of enduring Time—</p> - -<p class='c017'>One traveling long distances by his own power, and having no -means of measurement, conceives space not in miles, but in -duration of effort.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> The hundred empty miles ‘twixt him and where</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “empty” miles?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> One hairsbreadth farther from the earth and sky</p> - -<p class='c017'>He was as remote from all things as it was possible to be, so why -not try!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “simulacrum.”</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span> - <h3 class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Crawl</span></h3> -</div> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_37'>37</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The Crawl is the most detailed account of physical suffering and endurance -extant in poetry. Note the large number of words that make -direct appeal to the sensations of thirst, weariness, chronic pain, fever, -delirium. Again the sense of loneliness, of betrayal, of a conspiracy to -destroy him appears everywhere in Hugh’s experience. The monotony -of the journey appears in its slowness, which is indicated in many ways.</p> - -<p class='c016'>Before describing the Crawl, Neihardt first found out what vegetable -growths would be found on the trail, the character of the soil, how the -streams would erode, etc. The poet is true to all nature, even natural -science.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> And through it ran the short trail to the goal.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the “goal”? Ree villages lay nearly directly east.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> Thereon a grim turnpikeman waited toll:</p> - -<p class='c017'>Who is the “grim turnpikeman”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> Should make their foe the haunter of a tale.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh was killed on the Yellowstone by the Rees in 1832.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> The scoriac region of a hell burned black</p> - -<p class='c017'>The bad lands of the Little Missouri, so made to appear by spontaneous -combustion of lignite deposits.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Should bid for pity at the Big Horn’s mouth.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Big Horn’s mouth, where Henry and his men spent -the winter of 1823–1824.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> Whereon the feeders of the Moreau head—</p> - -<p class='c017'>Head waters of the Moreau. Locate the Moreau.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span><b>3.</b> Scarce more than deep-carved runes of vernal rain.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The rune was a character in the ancient alphabet and ultimately -came to stand for poetry. Here the original meaning as a deep -cut is restored.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> Defiant clumps of thirst embittered grass, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note how exactly the characteristics of an arid landscape are -set forth in such phrases as “thirst embittered grass,” “parched -earth,” “bared and fang-like roots,” “dwarf thickets,” “stunted -fruits.” The poet is shown by exactness, not inaccuracy.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> And made the scabrous gulch appear to shake</p> - -<p class='c017'>The very sound of the word “scabrous” suggests dryness.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> And where the mottled shadow dripped as ink etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The shadow of leaves on the yellow earth is black. The description -is absolutely accurate. “A poet is known by his epithets.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_39'>39</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> Amid ironic heavens in the West—</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “ironic heavens”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> A purpling panorama swept away.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “purpling”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> Scarce farther than a shout might carry</p> - -<p class='c017'>How far had Hugh traveled in the day?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Into the quiet house of no false friend.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “quiet house”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17–20.</b> Alas for those who seek a journey’s end—etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The philosophy of these lines is that the way is the important -thing, not the end. This is a part of Neihardt’s life-philosophy.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> Now swoopingly the world of dream broke through</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note that no two of Hugh’s dreams are alike. In this dream his -revenge is futile. Is that the nature of revenge, to defeat itself?</p> - -<p class='c017'>How many lines are taken to tell this dream? How much in -little space!</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_40'>40</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Gazing far, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Another remarkable description of the sky and prairie and their -effect upon Hugh.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Make a list of epithets descriptive of both sky and prairie as -you find them on pages <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>–<a href='#Page_27'>27</a>–<a href='#Page_28'>28</a>–<a href='#Page_29'>29</a>–<a href='#Page_30'>30</a>–<a href='#Page_32'>32</a>–<a href='#Page_34'>34</a>–<a href='#Page_36'>36</a>–<a href='#Page_39'>39</a>. Epithets -may be adjectives or verbs or nouns. Such are “globose immensity,” -“smoky steep,” “serene antagonist,” “negativity of -might.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Seemed that vast negativity of might; etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>In what sense is the might of distance negative?</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the “frustrate vision of the night”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>What does the poet mean by saying it came “moonwise”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is Hugh’s mood when he feels that the foe is “naught but -yielding air”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> A vacancy to fill with his intent!</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the grammatical construction of “to fill”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Three-footed; and the vision goaded him.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What vision “goaded him”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Served but to brew more venom for his hate,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why is hate spoken of as venomous? What has modern Physiology -to say of this?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>25.</b> And nerved him to avail the most with least.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is meant by “avail the most with least”?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_41'>41</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>10.</b> Devoured the chance-flung manna of the plains</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Manna”—what is the reference?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> The coulee deepened; yellow walls flung high, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Accurate description of arid conditions by their effect on Hugh.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>6.</b> It had the acrid tang of broken trust</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> The sweetish, tepid taste of feigning love!</p> - -<p class='c017'>A projection of the subjective into the objective.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Clear as a friend’s heart, ‘twas, and seeming cool—</p> - -<p class='c017'>The same as above.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> And lo, the tang of that wide insolence</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Of sky and plain was acrid in the draught!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note again the attitude of nature, as Hugh sees it, in its “wide -insolence.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>25.</b> How like fine sentiment the mirrored sky etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The cruelty of sentimentalism. Note on this page the steps by -which the sense of thirst is induced in the reader and the corresponding -disappointment increased; “dry as strewn bones -bleaching to a desert sky,” “grateful ooze,” “sucked the mud,” -“sweetish, tepid taste,” “taunted thirst,” “damp spots,” then -the description of the pool and the “famished horses.” Is not -the reader as thirsty as Hugh and nearly as keenly disappointed?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> Nor did he rise till, vague with stellar light, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Compare with Bryant’s “Forest Hymn.”</p> - -<p class='c017'>At what line does Hugh fall asleep? At what line does he begin -to awake? How many days since “The Crawl” began?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> And Hugh lay gazing till the whole resolved etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the difference between this dream and that of the previous -night? Why? Does Hugh still love Jamie? Would he kill -him in such a mood? How many lines in the dream?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: specious, gulch, buttressing, Host, nave, architrave.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_44'>44</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Hugh has not yet reached the prairie on the divide between the Grand -and the Moreau, though he has journeyed two days. How far do you -think he has crawled?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> Loath to go, Hugh lay beside the pool and pondered fate, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why is Hugh less eager to renew his journey than on the previous -morning? Do you suppose his dream had anything to do with -the matter? His weariness?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Sustaining wrath returning with the toil.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why does wrath return?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Of strength that had so very much to buy.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What had his strength “to buy”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: efface, cauldron.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_45'>45</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>11.</b> Sleep out the glare. With groping hands for sight,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh sleeps on the afternoon of the third day of his journey.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain “groping hands for sight.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Or sensed—the dusky mystery of plain.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why dusky mystery? Can you see a prairie by starlight?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Gazing aloft, he found the capsized Wain</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Capsized Wain,” Bear. What time of night?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16–17.</b> Thereto he set his back;</p> - -<p class='c017'>What direction did he take? How much knowledge of the constellations -must have meant to primitive men! To sailors! To -hunters! Read Bryant’s “Hymn to the North Star.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> The star-blanched summit of a lonely butte</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> And thitherward he dragged his heavy limb.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the butte used to guide the crawler. Could a plainsman -see a butte by starlight? Could a “tenderfoot”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span><b>21.</b> It seemed naught moved, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The movement on a prairie and in the night seems objectless.</p> - -<p class='c017'>It gives a supreme sense of monotony. Time stopped. We -measure time by events; no events, no time.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: blanched, incipient.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_46'>46</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> Sheer deep upon unfathomable deep, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A curious but vivid figure, expressing a sense of darkness and uninterrupted -silence.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> So lapsed the drowsy æon of the night—</p> - -<p class='c017'>The monotony makes the hours seem a moment drawn out.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> And then, as quickened to somnambulance, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the steps of the dawning, and the suddenness of the coming -of day. The description is not only vivid but accurate.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Scarce had he munched the hoarded roots, when came etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why the difference between this and previous dreams?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “tensile.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> It was the hour when cattle straggle home etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A fine lyric. This is one of many memory pictures of Hugh’s -travels. Nothing in the poem tells directly of Hugh’s past.</p> - -<p class='c017'>This silence suggests tragedy dimly illumined by the memory -pictures. Is Hugh an imaginative man? Enumerate the evening -sounds. Note the steps marking the transition from evening -to night. How many days has Hugh crawled? Hugh is known -to have been a Pennsylvanian of Scotch descent.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “peripheries.”</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_48'>48</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Blank as the face of fate. In listless mood etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Fate is associated with the inevitable and unrevealed. “In listless -mood” etc.—the end of a day of feverish dreams finds -Hugh weakened and caring less to live.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> And met the night. The new moon, low and far, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the phase of the moon.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> The kiote voiced the universal lack.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hunger.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> As from a nether fire, the plain gave back</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> The swelter of the noon-glare to the gloom.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The heat of the prairie is often very noticeable after sunset.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Why seek some further nowhere on the plain?</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “nowhere”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> So spoke some loose-lipped spirit of despair;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “loose-lipped”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> And still Hugh moved, volitionless—a weight, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Volitionless—The power of habit is compared to that of the moon -over the tides.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Now when the night wore on in middle swoon,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> To breathe became an act of conscious will.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> The starry waste was ominously still.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> As through a tunnel in the atmosphere—</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the steps of the coming storm: <em>middle swoon</em>, a drowsy night, -stifling condition of the air, utter silence with sense of impending -disaster, <em>as through a tunnel</em>, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The description of the storm is exact to the minutest detail. It -is not interspersed with more or less sentimental comments as -is Byron’s description of the storm on the Alps (Childe Harold, -Canto III), yet it gains in power by its adherence to truth.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_49'>49</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> An oily film seemed spread upon the sky</p> - -<p class='c017'>Storm still approaching. “The oily film,” the gradual darkening -of the atmosphere.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Upon hell’s burlesque sabbath for the lost,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What could be more hopeless than “Sabbath in Hell”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Hugh chose not, yet he crawled;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Habit keeps him moving.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> He felt the futile strife was nearly o’er.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh will die unless relief comes.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> And as he went, a muffled rumbling grew,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Far away thunder, the next step in the approach of the storm.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Somehow ‘twas coextensive with his thirst,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Confusion of objective and subjective, a not uncommon experience -of extreme weakness.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_50'>50</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>12.</b> Star-hungry, ranged in regular array, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the use of constellations to indicate the vast expanse and -swift movement of the cloud; another illustration of the poet’s -power to see things in the large. Locate the constellations named.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain the figure, “star-hungry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Deep in the further murk sheet-lightning flared.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Sheet-lightning—covering the sky like a sheet, sometimes called -heat lightning—a common phenomenon in prairie storms.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> What turmoil now? Lo, ragged columns hurled, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain “ragged columns.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_51'>51</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> Along the solid rear a dull boom runs!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain “solid rear.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span><b>11.</b> Reveals the butte-top tall and lonely there</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Like some gray prophet contemplating doom.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The second time the butte has been described.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Ghosts of the ancient forest—or old rain, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Geology tells us that these plains were once covered with forests.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> That e’er evolving, ne’er resolving sound</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Gropes in the stifling hollow of the night.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Never fully developing. “Evolving,” “resolving”—technical -expressions in music.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The rush of the rain, the constant flare of lightning, the sudden cessation, -as well as the slow and dread beginning, are characteristic of storms -in semi-arid countries. This poem reveals every phase of nature on the -prairies and none more vividly than the storm.</p> - -<p class='c016'>Define: hurtling, wassail, sardonic, flaw, ravin, murk, cosmic, -sodden.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> The butte soared, like a soul serene and white</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> Because of the katharsis of the night.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The butte appears again, this time as the symbol of a soul that -has struggled and triumphed. The principle of Katharsis, purification, -is a principle of the Greek drama as worked out by -Aristotle. To what degree is it a principle of life?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> All day Hugh fought with sleep and struggled on</p> - -<p class='c017'>Which day? Why does Hugh no longer travel at night?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Hope flared in Hugh, until the memory came</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Of him who robbed a sleeping friend and fled.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span><b>18.</b> Then hate and hunger merged; etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note again that Hugh finds Jamie’s treachery everywhere. It is -an obsession with him.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “amethyst.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_54'>54</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>How many days has Hugh crawled? How far has he journeyed?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> Swooped by. The dream of crawling and the act etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>An appeal to the muscular sense.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Such dreams bespeak extreme weariness.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> The butte, outstripped at eventide, now seemed etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The butte now becomes the measure of a progress infinitely slow, -a source of discouragement.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Whose hand-in-pocket saunter kept the pace.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “hand-in-pocket”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> What rest and plenty on the other side!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh must have encouragement. The break in the prairie, the -crest of the divide, furnishes that. Explain the psychology. How -far is the divide from the Grand?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> All day it seemed that distant Pisgah Height</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “Pisgah”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “lush.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_55'>55</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Hugh is near to starvation. The adventure with the gopher goes -from waking reality to dream on the following night and to waking dream -the next day, revealing how sick Hugh had become.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> The battered gray face leered etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note that the vivid picture of the face of Hugh is secured by the -choice of a few meaningful words, battered, leered, slaver, anticipating -jaws.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span><b>13.</b> Evolving twilight hovered to a pause</p> - -<p class='c017'>The twilight pause means what?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Hugh jerked the yarn. It broke.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the brevity of the climax, “It broke.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Down swooped the night,</p> - -<p class='c017'>How many days of journeying? The dream is a nightmare -while the previous one was relatively peaceful. Why the difference?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> Woke hordes of laughers down the giddy yawn</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “hordes of laughers”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> Dream dawn, dream-noon, dream-twilight!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Night and day are “telescoped” for Hugh by the monotony of -crawling either awake or in dreams and never getting anywhere.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Dream-dawn, dream-noon, dream-night! And still obsessed</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why the repetition?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> By that one dream more clamorous than the rest,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the one dream? Why is it a dream?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: gully, turbid, relict.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> Yet had the pleasant lie befriended him,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> And now the brutal fact had come to stare.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the “pleasant lie”? The brutal fact?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> And nursed that deadly adder of the soul,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> Self-pity. Let the crows swoop down and feed, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Sentimentalism is soul-flabbiness.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> And lo, a finger-nail, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The accumulation of great results by infinitesimal accretions is -one of the everlasting surprises in life.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span><b>21.</b> So fare the wise on Pisgah.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How do the wise use their Pisgahs? To enjoy or to inspire to -further effort?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: facture, dwarfed, Titan, triumvirate.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> Some higher Hugh observed the baser part.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What was the higher, what the baser part?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> So sits the artist throned above his art, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The hurt is nothing, the achievement is all. No man who is -worth anything but counts his work as more than all else.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> It seemed the wrinkled hills pressed in to stare, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The manifestations of nature become Hugh’s audience and he -falls into the throes of composition. Most of our thinking is in -words uttered to persons present, absent, or imagined.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> So wrought the old evangel of high daring, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The true philosophy of life, to be a “victor in the moment.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> That day the wild geese flew</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the effect of their cries? Describe the appearance of -the sky.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: recks, travail, evangel.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Present, past and fancy are all mingled in Hugh’s experiences this day, -showing his weakened condition, and the feeling for Jamie obsesses him.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Hate slept that day,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Was it hate or an inversion of love?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> At last the buzzard beak no longer tore</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “buzzard beak”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: lethargy, maudlin.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> And now serenely beautiful etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>These lines were suggested to the author by a picture, “The -Death of Absalom.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> Thus vexed with doleful whims the crawler went etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh would have died at this time had he not drifted into the -rugged vale.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Told how the gray-winged gale blew out the day.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “gray-winged”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> It seemed no wind had ever come that way,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> Nor sound dwelt there, nor echo found the place.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How is utter quiet expressed!</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_61'>61</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>7.</b> Returning hunger bade him rise; in vain</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> He struggled with a fine-spun mesh of pain etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>An appeal to muscular sense.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> In that hip-wound he had for Jamie’s sake</p> - -<p class='c017'>That “hip-wound” brings back the desire for revenge, a close -association of ideas. Have you had such experiences?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Was turned again with every puckering twinge.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Puckering twinge,” another appeal to muscular sense.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Far down the vale a narrow winding fringe etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Having passed the divide Hugh slept at the head of a valley that -farther down becomes the bed of a little creek flowing into the -Moreau.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: mesh, trammelled, puckering, betokened.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_62'>62</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>6.</b> These two, as comrades, struggled south together—</p> - -<p class='c017'>Contrast the two “comrades,” each journeying to the many -fathomed peace, one consumed with “lust to kill,” the other -singing on the way. A bit of wise philosophy is suggested.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> And one went crooning of the moon-wooed vast;</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the “moon-wooed vast” and to what is it compared?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_63'>63</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>12.</b> All streams ran thin; and when he pressed a hand etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why did he do this?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Far-spread, shade-dimpled in the level glow,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Another of many sunset pictures in the poem and no two are alike. -“Far-spread, shade-dimpled in the level glow,” a prairie sunset -in one line.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Hugh saw what seemed the tempest of a dream</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why a “dream” tempest?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: phasic, weather-breeding.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_64'>64</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> A dust cloud deepened down the dwindling river;</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> Upon the distant tree-tops ran a shiver etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the pictures suggested in “dust cloud deepened,” “upon -the distant tree-tops ran a shiver,” “huddle thickets writhed,” -“green gloom gapes,” “mill and wrangle in a turbid flow.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Bound for the winter pastures of the Platte!</p> - -<p class='c017'>The Platte was an especially fine bison country.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> The lopped moon weltered in the dust-bleared East.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How long since Hugh began his journey?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Sleep came and gave a Barmecidal feast.</p> - -<p class='c017'>In the Arabian Nights one of the Barmecides, a wealthy family, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>served a beggar a pretended feast on beautiful dishes that were -empty.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> About a merry flame were simmering etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The appeal to the sense of hunger is powerful. Compare Vergil, -Æneid, Book I, 210–215.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> And tender tongues that never tasted snow,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “never tasted snow”?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_65'>65</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> So sounds a freshet when the banks are full etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note comparison of the movement of the herd to a swollen river -clogged by <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">débris</span>.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> Through which the wolves in doleful tenson tossed</p> - -<p class='c017'>Tenson: among the troubadours a contest between two singers.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> From hill to hill the ancient hunger-song.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hunger is the oldest form of suffering, and prayer for food the -oldest prayer.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> With some gray beast that fought with icy fang.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “icy” fang? “white world”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: eerie, myriads.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> The herd would pass and vanish in the night</p> - -<p class='c017'>How long was the herd in passing?</p> - -<p class='c017'>During this time, and for fifty years thereafter, bison herds often -covered the plains as far as the eye could see. In the 60’s -travellers on the old Oregon trail often journeyed through one -solid herd for as much as three days, and on either side the -prairie was filled to the horizon.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span><b>23.</b> So might a child assail the crowding sea!</p> - -<p class='c017'>The comparison of the on-rushing herd to high sea tide, notable -in itself, is greatly strengthened by the comparison of Hugh to -a child assaulting the waters. Note the impulse of the defeated -to act in absurd ways. Note the epithet, “crowding.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> Slept till the white of morning o’er the hill</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> Was like a whisper groping in a hush.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The comparison of light to sound, “the white of morning like a -whisper,” is unusual but true.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> The stream’s low trill seemed loud.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why seemed the low trill loud?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Smacked of the autumn, and a heavy dew etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What association of sensations brings the picture of the autumn -fields?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note how quickly the vision passed, an illustration of the author’s -power of concentration. Hugh was born in Pennsylvania. What -was his father’s business? How do you know from this and -other passages? See the lyrical passage on page <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> He brooded on the mockeries of Chance,</p> - -<p class='c017'>On page <a href='#Page_58'>58</a> we saw Hugh in the act of literary composition; now -we see him a philosopher. This is a common fact among what -we call the “common” people. Note the grave-digger scene in -Hamlet, Act V.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: smacked, hoar, frore.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Revealed the havoc of the living flood, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Point out each word and statement that pictures the havoc -wrought in the valley by the herd.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span><b>9.</b> A food-devouring plethora of food</p> - -<p class='c017'>Devouring what food? What plethora?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> Had come to make a starving solitude!</p> - -<p class='c017'>What idea is modified by the word “starving”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> That still the weak might perish.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Express this idea in other terms. Note unusual use of the word -“still.” State the biological “law of evolution.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Within himself the oldest cause of war</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the “oldest cause of war”? The newest?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: plethora, raucous, guerdon.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_69'>69</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> He saw a bison carcass black with crows, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>This picture is unique, cruel, almost revolting, but wonderfully -true.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> To die contending with a living foe,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> Than fight the yielding distance and the lack.</p> - -<p class='c017'>To engage in a short struggle with a visible foe with a definite -end near and certain is far easier than to endure the long drawn -and indefinite. This is because man is primarily well equipped -for the immediate struggle of hunting and war, but is not gifted -by nature with power to endure.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>5.</b> The wolf’s a coward, who, in goodly packs, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The wolf pack symbolizes the mob. The law of mob life is -cruelty, and cruelty is always cowardly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> How some great beast that shambled like a bear</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “shambled like a bear”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Woe in the silken meshes of the friend,</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span><b>25.</b> Weal in the might and menace of the foe.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The friend often weakens his friend. The opposition of the -enemy develops his strength.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: lacerated, vituperative, prodigious, frenzy, weal.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>14.</b> When sleep is weirdest and a moment’s flight,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Dreams often come just before waking.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Hoof-smitten leagues consuming in a dust.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the syntax of “leagues”? Explain the line.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> A corpse, yet heard the muffled parleying etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note how the idea that he was really dead haunts Hugh both -sleeping and waking. Find other places in the poem where this -is true.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> The babble flattened to a blur of gray—</p> - -<p class='c017'>A comparison of sound to light.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Could they be the Sioux?</p> - -<p class='c017'>The Sioux had been allies in the Leavenworth Campaign, while -the Rees were enemies. Note page <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note on this page the vivid picture of the Indians riding in the -fog.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> The outflung feelers of a tribe a-stir</p> - -<p class='c017'>Meaning of “feelers”?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_73'>73</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> And wasna!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Bison meat, shredded, dried, and mixed with bison tallow and -dried bullberries, the mixture being packed in bladders.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span><b>11.</b> But kinsman of the blood of daring men.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Actual “blood brotherhood” between Indian and White was not -uncommon and bravery and loyalty were the basis of such relation.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> O Friend-Betrayer at the Big Horn’s mouth, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note how Hugh’s imagination rushes on to the killing of Jamie.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> From where a cloud of startled blackbirds rose</p> - -<p class='c017'>What startles the blackbirds?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note on this page, and the next, various hints of the coming of -the Indians and how important the matter was to the starving -watcher from the bluff.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Embroiled the parliament of feathered shrews?</p> - -<p class='c017'>What are the “feathered shrews”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> Flackering strepent; now a sooty shower, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Flackering strepent”—fluttering and noisy, a fitting description -of the startled flock; onomatopœia.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The entire picture of the blackbirds is notable. They are a -“boiling cloud,” “a sooty shower,” with big flakes and driven -by a squall, they are “cold black fire.” All these terms are -startling but exact.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: parfleche, panniers, maize, parliament, shrews.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> What augury in orniscopic words</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> Did yon swart sibyls on the morning scrawl?</p> - -<p class='c017'>A rhetorical question to indicate the dread interest Hugh felt -in the question “Sioux or Ree?”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the fancy that words are written on the sky.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> In their van</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Aloof and lonely rode a gnarled old man etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Gnarled” like a tree. A most vivid picture of Elk Tongue, a -famous Ree chief.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span><b>16.</b> Beneath his heavy years, yet haughtily</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> He wore them like the purple of a king.</p> - -<p class='c017'>His great age is like a royal robe. “Gray hairs are a crown of -glory.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Keen for a goal, as from the driving string etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>In how many and significant ways his face is described in these -lines: keen for a goal, like a flinty arrow-head, with a brooding -stare. Directions for a statue could scarcely be more exact or -more full of suggestion.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: ruck, augury, orniscopic, swart, sibyl, attenuated, gnarled, -piebald.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_75'>75</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Read the entire description of the Indians at one sitting and get the -unified effect.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Such foeman as no warrior ever slew.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hunger.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> And hurled them shivering back upon the beast.</p> - -<p class='c017'>According to the Greek myth men were little better than beasts -until Prometheus brought fire to them from heaven in a reed.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How nearly does the myth accord with truth?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> Hope fed them with a dream of buffalo etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>With primitive man feast and famine were often close together.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Home with their Pawnee cousins on the Platte,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Platte. The Rees and Pawnees speak the same -tongue with slight variations.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define “ravelled.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> The rich-in-ponies rode, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The first scene in the moving picture shows the contrast of rich -and poor that existed even in the most primitive society.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span><b>3.</b> For much is light and little is a load etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is meant? The sentence is a paradox.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> Whining because the milk they got was thinned etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The squaws with their crying babies are the material of the -second scene, followed by the striplings.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> How fair life is beyond the beckoning blue, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Distance lends enchantment.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Cold-eyed the grandsires plodded, for they knew, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note contrasting words: striplings, grandsires; strutted, plodded.</p> - -<p class='c017'>One group saw visions, the other was disillusioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> In what lone land.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is meant?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Stooped to the fancied burden of the race;</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the “burden of the race”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>25.</b> The lean cayuses toiled.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Cayuse, a broncho, originally one bred by the Cayuse Indians.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>27.</b> To see a world flow by on either side,</p> - -<p class='c017'>How does the world “flow by”?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The dog was an ever present feature of Indian life. Note the author’s -familiarity with the dog.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Yielded to the squaws’</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Inverted mercy and a slow-won grave.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“The female of the species is more deadly than the male.” Why?</p> - -<p class='c017'>For the sake of the protection of the young. Indian fighters -had a special horror of falling into the hands of the squaws.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hate and love are opposite sides of the same shield. In proportion -as woman loves her children and the protectors of them she -hates anybody and anything that menaces them.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span><b>14.</b> Since Earth’s first mother scolded from a cave</p> - -<p class='c017'>A true picture of social origins.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> To match the deadly venom brewed above</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> The lean, blue, blinding heart-fires of her love.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the witches’ cauldron that bubbles here and the fire that -burns below it.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> But thrice three seasons yet should swell the past, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Glass was killed by the Rees in 1832.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> So was it writ, ere Fate’s keen harriers etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why is Fate capitalized?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: palimpsest, harriers.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> For that weird pass whereto the fleet are slow,</p> - -<p class='c017'>The fleet are the young, but the old reach the “weird pass” first.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Scarce had he crossed the open flat, and won etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>On this page and the next we have the temptation of Hugh to -kill the squaw. (<em>a</em>) Do you feel that Hugh will kill her? (<em>b</em>) Would -he be justified in so doing? (<em>c</em>) Would you be satisfied to have -the hero of the story slay a weak old woman, though an Indian?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Whom does Hugh see sitting haloed like a saint? (page <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>)</p> - -<p class='c017'>What impression on Hugh does the whole adventure make?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> He reached a river. Leaning to a pool etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Was the reaction against his own pity natural?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> That somehow some sly Jamie of a dream</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Had plundered him again;</p> - -<p class='c017'>Again the obsession concerning Jamie. There seems a suggestion -of insanity in this. Is the pursuit of vengeance always insane?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span><b>18.</b> Now when the eve in many-shaded grays etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Another prairie sunset. Note that every description of the -prairie is woven directly into the story. No two are alike.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> Hugh paused perplexed. Elusive, haunting, dim, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A comparison of pure sense to pure idea is unusual but true, for -ideas rest upon sense perception.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: crone, fleered.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> It seemed the sweet</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> Allure of home.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Association by sense of smell—smoke, fire, home in the evening.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> Hearth-lit within, its windows were as eyes etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The comparison of an old farmhouse to an old mother. Point -out pathos in each.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> A two-tongued herald wooing hope and fear,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Meaning? Compare Æneid, Book I, 661.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Select a lyric from this page.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: troll, recrudescent.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_82'>82</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> And reached a bluff’s top. In a smudge of red etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Another sunset picture. Where were the “pools of gloom”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>How comes the “mottled” effect?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> He lay upon the bare height, fagged, forlorn,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh is again near to collapse.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Then with a start etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How well the first stage of the finding and appropriation of fire -has been pictured as the effect of smell! Now comes the second -stage. The whole incident epitomizes in wonderful way the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>meaning of fire to mankind. Note the beauty of the comparison -of the flame to a lily.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: mottled, pluming.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> With pounding heart Hugh crawled along the height</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “with pounding heart”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Keen to possess once more the ancient gift.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Of Prometheus to man.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: doddering, burgeoning, tenuous.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Arose, and made an altar of the place.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Fire worship is as old as the race. Hugh is the priest, the East -Wind a religious novice who sings in the ceremonials, the night -is the temple, and in response to the worship, “Conjuries of -interwoven breath,” the fire god appears in the burning wood.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> The Wind became a chanting acolyte.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why have an East Wind?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> Once more the freightage of the fennel rod</p> - -<p class='c017'>Prometheus used a fennel rod to bring fire to mortals.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>11.</b> Dissolved the chilling pall of Jovian scorn.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Jove despised men and refused them fire.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> The face apocalyptic, and the sword</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> The glory of the many-symboled Lord</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Voiced with the sound of many waters,</p> - -<p class='c017'>All this is from Revelations, Chapter I.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: acolyte, epiphanic.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>11.</b> Then set about to view an empty camp</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> As once before, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>See pages <a href='#Page_29'>29</a> and <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_86'>86</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Among the ash-heaps; and the lean dogs ran</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>2.</b> And barked about him, for the love of man etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Some one has said that the dog was a candidate for humanity -and just missed it.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> For ‘tis the little gifts of grudging Chance,</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Well husbanded, make victors.</p> - -<p class='c017'>This is a principle of economy often illustrated.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> Scarce more of marvel and the sense of might, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Tennyson makes poetry out of a miraculous sword, Neihardt -out of a man-made knife. One is romanticism, the other realism.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Which is more poetic?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Not having, but the measure of desire etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“A man’s riches consist of what he can do without.” Socrates -taught this philosophy.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>2.</b> Who gaining more, seek most, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>7.</b> That twain wherewith Time put the brute to school,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Who was the “brute”? How “put to school”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> What gage of mastery in fire and tool!—</p> - -<p class='c017'>The control of fire was the first great step in civilization and -someone has said that the invention of the bow and arrow wrought -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>greater changes in human life than any other invention. By -enabling man to kill at a greater range it increased his supply -of meat and so made it possible to live in larger groups.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Why didn’t Hugh roast the dog instead of boiling? Note details of -preparation. Hugh ate the entire dog. Two starved Indian hunters -have been known to eat the whole carcass of a deer at one sitting.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Hugh slept. And then—as divers, mounting, sunder etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A vivid expression of a common experience on waking from especially -profound sleep.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: bulimic, gage.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> And was the friendlike fire a Jamie too? etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The natural return of a monomania.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> The sting of that antiquity of pain</p> - -<p class='c017'>After a long rest, his former suffering seemed ancient.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> That yielding victor, fleet in being slow</p> - -<p class='c017'>Always more space to be conquered, hence slow and certain to -win over Hugh.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> So readily the tentacles of sense, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Thinkers are just beginning to realize something of the hypnotic -power of habit and custom in the individual and in society. The -loss of the accustomed may disintegrate the life. Our author -shows keen understanding when he likens the effect upon Hugh -of the loss of fire to that of the loss of a dear one by death. A -moment ago he was here, vital, real. Now he is gone. How -strange is the world without him!</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>7.</b> A yelping of the dogs among the bluffs, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The one sound in the desolate night, the yelping of the dogs, -starts a train of ideas. The power of abstraction has made man -able to survive where less intelligent forms have perished.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Flint can be used to skin a dog, so can steel, the two smitten together -make fire, so Hugh found his “unlocked door to life.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> Spilled on it from the smitten stone a shower</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>23.</b> Of ruddy seed; and saw the mystic flower</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> That genders its own summer, bloom anew!</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain the metaphor.</p> - -<p class='c017'>An absolutely new figure regarding fire.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>10.</b> Set laggard singers snatching at the tune.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What “laggard singers”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> And, pitching voices to the timeless woe,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Life fundamentally sad.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> Outwailed the lilting. So the Chorus sings etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>In the Greek theater the Chorus sang after the actor had spoken, -always taking an opposite tone. So Hugh’s joyous song is -drowned in the wailing of the dogs.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>8.</b> He hobbled now along a withered rill etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the quiet of the autumn spell over the secluded place, and -the onomatopœia indicating the falling of the plums and whispering -leaves; also the crying of the lonesome dog that makes the -stillness more intense and sad.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span><b>10.</b> A cyclopean portal yawning sheer.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Cyclopean portal,” Homer’s Odyssey.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>25.</b> Above the sunset like a stygian boat,</p> - -<p class='c017'>The boat of Charon on the Styx, the river of the underworld.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_93'>93</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> The new moon bore the spectre of the old,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>3.</b> The valley of the tortuous Cheyenne.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Cheyenne.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> And ere the half moon sailed the night again, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How long since Hugh left the forks of the Grand?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>17.</b> Grown Atlantean in the wrestler’s craft.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain “Atlantean.”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Read “The River and I,” Chapter I, by the same author, to get -his feeling for the Missouri.</p> - -<h3 class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Return of the Ghost</span></h3> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Not long Hugh let the lust of vengeance gnaw</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note that the first line of the division of the poem rhymes with -the last line of the former. How often does this happen in the -poem? This device keeps the mind on a stretch and so keeps -interest alive. The same device is often used by the author in -passing from one paragraph to the next.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> I can not rest; for I am but the ghost etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The old obsession that he actually died by the Grand, though -here used less seriously than in other places.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span><b>12.</b> With such a blizzard of a face for me!</p> - -<p class='c017'>The epithet reveals how Hugh’s gray “ruined face” impressed -men.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> For he went grayer like a poplar tree, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The simile of the face of Glass in mentioning Jamie’s treachery -and the poplar tree shaken by the first wind of a storm is true -to nature, for a poplar turns the gray side of its leaves when -shaken.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: fend, kenneled.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_95'>95</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> From where the year’s last keelboat hove in view</p> - -<p class='c017'>The keelboat, shaped with keel and hence so called, from forty -to sixty feet long, carrying as much as sixty tons and pulled by -fifteen to twenty-five men, was used on the Missouri and other -navigable rivers before the day of the steamboat.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> Until the tipsy Bourgeois bawled for Glass</p> - -<p class='c017'>The head of a trading post in the fur trading period was called -Bourgeois, a French word meaning tradesman.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> The graybeard, sitting where the light was blear, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The whole account of Hugh’s telling of this great tragedy is of -the highest excellence. We already know that Hugh is a story -teller; we have seen him composing this very tale (page <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>), and -we know how his imagination sometimes carries him beyond the -actual, as when he saw Jamie dead (page <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>). The effect of his -face, with its changing expressions suiting all the moods associated -with love and betrayal, his chanting songlike tones, is -shown in the muscular responses of the listeners and their shudders -when the story ends. The supreme touch comes when Hugh -tells of the slaying of Jamie as if already done.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span><b>19.</b> And his the purpose that is art’s, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>To centre attention on human experience at the crucial moment -and so render it immortal.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> Whereby men make a vintage of their hearts etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Turn sorrow into beauty. Is there comfort in a sad story well -told?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Select the lines on this page that convey a sense of monotony.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Past where the tawny Titan gulps the cup</p> - -<p class='c017'>Titan, the Missouri.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> And there old times came mightily on Hugh, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Do you believe Hugh capable now of killing Jamie?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Some troubled glory of that wind-tossed hair</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hugh’s memory of Jamie is sad, not bitter.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: cutbank, wry, tawny.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_98'>98</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> So haunted with the blue of Jamie’s eyes, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The blue is sad but not treacherous as once.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> Past where the Cannon Ball and Heart come in</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Cannon Ball and the Heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> The chaining of the Titan. Drift ice ran.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The story of the freezing of the river is worth noting for its vividness, -its alliterations and onomatopœia.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> The wingéd hounds of Winter ceased to bay.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What were the “wingéd hounds”?</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>5.</b> To wait the far-off Heraclean thaw,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Heraclean—Hercules. What chained Titan did Hercules release?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12.</b> His purpose called him at the Big Horn’s mouth—</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Big Horn. What purpose? Who was there?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> And took the bare, foot-sounding solitude</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “foot-sounding”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> He seemed indeed a fugitive from Death etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Another reference to Hugh’s fancy that he had actually died.</p> - -<p class='c017'>It gives added force to that fancy to make his frosted breath -suggest a shroud.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>24.</b> Now the moon was young</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the phase of the moon for later reference.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_100'>100</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>6.</b> With Spring’s wild rage, the snow-born Titan girl, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The Yellowstone is larger at the junction than is the Missouri.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Hence the Missouri is the Titan girl rushing into the arms of her -lover. But in the winter with snow covering the ice, “A winding -sheet was on the marriage bed.” Why “snow-born”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> Gray void seemed suddenly astir with wings etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note onomatopœia in the lines indicating that snow begins to -fall.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_101'>101</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> The bluffs loomed eerie, and the scanty trees</p> - -<p class='c017'>Describe the appearance of the trees.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> The tumbling snowflakes sighing all around,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What associations brought Hugh a dream of boyhood?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span><b>18.</b> The Southwind in the tousled apple trees</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> And slumber flowing from their leafy gloom.</p> - -<p class='c017'>These lines are an intentional “literary echoing” of one of the -most beautiful of the Sapphic fragments,—fragment 4 in Bergk’s -text.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Define: penumbral, susurrant.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_102'>102</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The blizzard is a storm characteristic of the plains. It generally -lasts three days, is terribly cold, and the whirling snow is blinding.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>4.</b> Black blindness grew white blindness</p> - -<p class='c017'>Indicating the slight difference between night and day.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note in how few lines the poet pictures the passing of the day.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>5.</b> All being now seemed narrowed to a span, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>All else was shut from sight and to a degree from the mind.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_103'>103</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>7.</b> As with the waning day the great wind fell.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The sudden cessation of the wind at the close of the third day of -the storm is characteristic, as is also the intense cold. Forty -degrees below zero is not unusual, often even fifty degrees.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>10.</b> When, heifer-horned, the maiden moon lies down</p> - -<p class='c017'>A reference to the maiden Diana, goddess of the moon.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How long was Hugh on this journey?</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_104'>104</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> Yon sprawling shadow, pied with candle-glow etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Another of the gripping memory pictures. Can a man who -dreams such a waking dream kill another, even one who has -betrayed him, in cold blood?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span><b>21.</b> Or was this but the fretted wraith of Hugh etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The feeling that he is a ghost comes to Hugh twice in this incident -of finding the fort. His long journey, his weakened physical -condition and his exhausted emotions combine to make life seem -unreal.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>14.</b> Joy filled a hush twixt heart-beats like a bird; etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Joy rather than anger comes first in his feeling about Jamie.</p> - -<p class='c017'>That is significant.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>7.</b> “My God! I saw the Old Man’s ghost out there!”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Belief in ghosts was common among the trappers.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>12–21.</b> “Hugh strove to shout,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>For the last time we see Hugh with the feeling that he is dead.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Are you surprised that Hugh does not kill Le Bon? Would you excuse -the deed if he had?</p> - -<h3 class='c012'><span class='sc'>Jamie</span></h3> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>Locate the Country of the Crows (Absaroka), the Big Horn, the -Powder, Fort Atkinson.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>16.</b> Now up the Powder, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Trace the journey on the map.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Laramie.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span> - <h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> The Niobrara races for the morn—</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Niobrara. It is a very swift stream. Note the entire -description of the coming of spring on the prairie. It is a lyric -and includes a description of both late and early-coming of spring.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><b>3.</b> Here at length was born</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the southern slopes the baby spring, etc.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c017'>A slow spring.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> Not such as when announced by thunder-claps etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A description of a swiftly coming spring.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>9.</b> Clad splendidly as never Sheba’s Queen,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Sheba’s Queen—The Bible, 1st Kings.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> And no root dreamed what Triumph-over-Death</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> Was nurtured now in some bleak Nazareth, etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The coming of spring suggests the resurrection.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> And everywhere the Odic Presence dwelt.</p> - -<p class='c017'>“Odic”: from “od,” an arbitrary scientific term signifying the -mysterious vital force in nature.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>21.</b> And when they reached the valley of the Snake,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Snake.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> The Niobrara’s ice began to break,</p> - -<p class='c017'>The next step in the coming of spring.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_112'>112</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>4.</b> The geese went over,</p> - -<p class='c017'>A sure sign that spring is almost come.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>6.</b> The little river of Keyapaha</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Keyapaha.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span><b>10.</b> To where the headlong Niobrara etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the mouth of the Niobrara. A student in one of my -classes once wrote an interesting essay telling how her father’s -farm had been swept away by the rushing of the Niobrara into -the Missouri at the spring flood. At such times the smaller -river hurls the Missouri as much as a mile beyond its normal -course.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> A giant staggered by a pigmy’s sling.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What Bible story is here referred to?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> There all the vernal wonder-work was done: etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>From here on select the color words that give the picture of the -progress of spring. Another lyric.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>14.</b> Of wizard-timber and of wonder-stuff etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Are day dreams built of “wizard-timber and of wonder-stuff”?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the alliteration.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Into the North, a devil-ridden man.</p> - -<p class='c017'>The first picture of Jamie since he deserted Hugh. Will it arouse -Hugh’s pity?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> Up the long watery stairway to the Horn,</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the “watery stairway to the Horn”? Horn—Big -Horn River.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> And the year was shorn etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>How long is it since the story opened?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the entire description of the coming of autumn.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>19.</b> That withered in the endless martyrdom</p> - -<p class='c017'>Why “martyrdom”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span><b>20.</b> The scarlet quickened on the plum etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Note the steps of the coming of autumn at the Heart, among the -Mandans, at the Yellowstone, the Powder.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_115'>115</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>1.</b> Was spattered with the blood of Summer slain.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A remarkable figure.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>8.</b> Aye, one who seemed to stare upon a ghost etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>A second picture of Jamie’s suffering.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>14.</b> And to forgive and to forget were sweet: etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>There will be no murder; our interest now is that the men may -meet and in the manner of reconciliation.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> ‘Tis for its nurse etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Explain. Is this not true?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>20.</b> But at the crossing of the Rosebud’s mouth</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Rosebud.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>3.</b> Alas, the journey back to yesterwhiles! etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>There is no going back to the old days.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>13.</b> He came with those to where the Poplar joins etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Poplar.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>22.</b> From Mississippi to the Great Divide</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate the Great Divide.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>5.</b> Upon Milk River valley,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Locate Milk River.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span><b>7.</b> Above the Piegan lodges,</p> - -<p class='c017'>Piegans—one of the principal divisions of the Blackfoot tribe -of Indians. Locate the Piegan village.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_118'>118</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>7.</b> Lest on the sunset trail slow feet should err.</p> - -<p class='c017'>What is the “sunset trail”?</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>16.</b> You saw no Black Robe?</p> - -<p class='c017'>Black Robe, priest, so-called by all Indians.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>18.</b> “Heaped snow—sharp stars—a kiote on the rise.”</p> - -<p class='c017'>The answer is true to the laconic Indian speech, but it is -beautiful.</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_122'>122</a></h4> - -<p class='c018'><b>2.</b> By their own weakness are the feeble sped; etc.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Three paradoxes—“He that loseth his life shall find it.”</p> - -<h4 class='c014'>PAGE <a href='#Page_123'>123</a></h4> - -<p class='c015'>The vision of Hugh as seen by Jamie corresponds to the description -of Hugh on pages <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> and <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>. May we say that Jamie may indeed have -seen Hugh? The Society for Psychic Research records such phenomena.</p> - -<p class='c000'><b>15.</b> O, Father, I had paid too much for breath!</p> - -<p class='c017'>For what will a man give his life? What higher values than life -are there? It is Satan who says in Job, “All that a man hath -will he give for his life.”</p> - -<p class='c017'>Show that the principle of Katharsis is illustrated in this poem.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>Printed in the United States of America.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</h2> -</div> - <ol class='ol_1 c002'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors. - - </li> - <li>Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Song of Hugh Glass, by John Gneisenau Neihardt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SONG OF HUGH GLASS *** - -***** This file should be named 53667-h.htm or 53667-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/6/6/53667/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - - </body> - <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.56k on 2016-12-04 19:33:17 GMT --> -</html> |