s: Naught to my heart e'er gave a pang so great.


s: Towards all beside I have a kindly mood;


s: Yet, though I yearn to gaze on thee, I feel


s: At sight of him strange horror o'er me steal;


s: That he's a villain my conviction's strong.


s: May Heaven forgive me, if I do him wrong!


s: Yet such strange fellows in the world must be!


s: I would not live with such an one as he.


s: He looks around him with a mocking sneer,


s: That he with naught on earth can sympathize is clear;


s: That to his heart no living soul is dear.


s: So warm and happy,--free from all alarms;


s: And still my heart doth close when he comes near.


s: I almost think, no more I love thee then.


s: Besides, when he is near, I ne'er could pray.


s: For one brief hour then may I never rest,


s: And heart to heart, and soul to soul be pressed?


s: The bolt I fain would leave undrawn for thee;


s: Mixed in her drink three drops, 'twill steep


s: Her nature in a deep and soothing sleep.


s: I know not, dearest, when thy face I see,


s: What doth my spirit to thy will constrain;


s: That scarcely more to do doth now remain.


s: They think, if pliant there, us too he will obey.


s: The only pledge, must holy anguish prove,


s: Holding the man she loves, Fore-doomed to endless death!


s: Most sensual, supersensualist? The while


s: She in my presence feels she knows not how;


s: My mask it seems a hidden sense reveals;


s: That I'm the very devil perhaps she feels.


s: That two she feedeth when she eats and drinks.


s: What promenades, what jaunts there were,


s: He always treating her to pastry and to wine.


s: Abroad our mothers ne'er would let us stir.


s: Thinking the hours too brief for their Sweet talk;


s: If she should get him, 'twere almost as bad!


s: For we chopp'd straw before her door would strew!


s: Black as it seemed, I blacken'd it still more,


s: And strove to make it blacker than before.


s: Enclosure between the City-wall and the Gate.


s: (In the niche of the wall a devotional image of the Mater


s: Help! from disgrace and death deliver me!


s: Each named with pride his favourite lass,


s: Each swaggering blade had talked his fill.


s: The while, with brimming glass, I spoke;


s: And though I smash'd them one and all,--


s: Who comes this way? who's sneaking here?


s: How from yon sacristy, athwart the night,


s: Its beams the ever-burning taper throws,


s: While ever waning, fades the glimmering light,


s: As gathering darkness doth around it close!


s: So night-like gloom doth in my bosom reign.


s: Virtuous withal, I feel, with, I confess,


s: Meanwhile, the treasure I see glimmering there,


s: Ere long thou wilt proceed with pleasure,


s: While bright with stars the heavens appear,


s: Whom are you luring here? I'll give it you!


s: Accursed rat-catchers, your strains I'll end!


s: First, to the devil the guitar I'll send!


s: Doctor, stand fast! your strength collect!


s: Out with your whisk, keep close, I pray,


s: Why how is this? my hand's already lamed!


s: But quick, away! We must at once take wing;


s: With the police I know my course to steer,


s: But with the blood-ban 'tis another thing.


s: They rail and scuffle, scream and fight!


s: To my last words give heed! (All gather round him.)


s: Since thou the path of shame dost tread,


s: The loathsome birth men fain would slay;


s: The more she courts the day's pure light.


s: Nor near the altar take in church thy place!


s: Thou'lt dance no more with spirits light!


s: On earth, a thing accursed, thou'lt live!


s: Your dying breath in slander will you spend?


s: How different, Gretchen, was it once with thee,


s: Is thy prayer utter'd for thy mother's soul,


s: Who into long, long torment slept through thee?


s: --And stirs there not already 'neath thy heart


s: That hither, thither, crowd upon my brain,


s: A broomstick dost thou not at least desire?


s: The roughest he-goat fain would I bestride,


s: By this road from our goal we're still far wide.


s: While fresh upon my legs, so long I naught require,


s: What boots it to abridge a pleasant way?


s: Along the labyrinth of these vales to creep,


s: Then scale these rocks, whence, in eternal spray,


s: Adown the cliffs the silvery fountains leap:


s: Such is the joy that seasons paths like these!


s: Spring weaves already in the birchen trees;


s: E'en the late pine-grove feels her quickening powers;


s: Should she not work within these limbs of ours?


s: Naught of this genial influence do I know!


s: I should prefer my dismal path to bound.


s: Shedding so faint a light, at every tread


s: One's sure to stumble 'gainst a rock or tree!


s: Holla! my friend! may I request your light?


s: Be kind enough to show us up the height!


s: Now, in the devil's name, for once go straight!


s: Or out at once your flickering life I'll blow.


s: That you are master here it obvious quite;


s: Only reflect! The hill is magic-mad to-night;


s: And if to show the path you choose a meteor's light,


s: You must not wonder should we go astray.


s: Through the stones and heather springing,


s: To snare the wanderer! 'Neath our tread,


s: A central peak have reached, which shows,


s: How through the chasms strangely gleams,


s: Here vapours rise, there clouds float by,


s: Here through the mist the light doth shine;


s: Here, where its force the gorge restrains,


s: Strewn broadcast, sputter sparks of light:


s: The boisterous guests, I feel, are coming straight.


s: How through the air the storm doth whirl!


s: Upon my neck it strikes with sudden shock.


s: Cling to these ancient ribs of granite rock,


s: Else to yon depths profound it you will hurl.


s: Hark! Through the woods the tempests roar!


s: Hark! Splinter'd are the columns that upbore


s: The stubble is yellow, the corn is green;


s: O'er stick and o'er stone they go whirling along,


s: Look at the wounds, how deep and how wide!


s: Scratches the besom and sticks the prong;


s: Crush'd is the mother, and stifled the child.


s: With one long bound 'tis clear'd by man.


s: Come with us, come with us from Felsensee.


s: We wash, and free from all stain are we,


s: The wind is hushed, the stars grow pale,


s: Sputters forth sparks of drizzling fire.


s: Salve gives the witches strength to rise;


s: They crowd and jostle, whirl and flutter!


s: They whisper, babble, twirl, and splutter!


s: They glimmer, sparkle, stink and flare--


s: The master then indeed I needs must play.


s: Here, doctor, grasp me! With a single bound


s: Hard by there shineth something with peculiar glare,


s: Come, come along with me! we'll slip in there.


s: Spirit of contradiction! Lead! I'll follow straight!


s: On May-night to the Brocken, and when there


s: I'd rather be above, though, I must own!


s: The impetuous millions to the devil ride;


s: Full many a riddle will be there untied.


s: Our lesser worlds within the great world to create!


s: Young witches there I see, naked and bare,


s: There's now no help for it. I'll step before


s: How say you now? 'Tis no such paltry room


s: Why only look, you scarce can see the end.


s: A hundred fires in rows disperse the gloom;


s: They dance, they talk, they cook, make love, and drink:


s: Where could we find aught better, do you think?


s: Though I am wont indeed to strict incognito,


s: Yet upon gala-days one must one's orders show.


s: Nathless the cloven foot doth here give dignity.


s: Seest thou yonder snail? Crawling this way she hies:


s: Here, even if I would, for me there's no disguise.


s: From fire to fire, we'll saunter at our leisure,


s: The gallant you, I'll cater for your pleasure.


s: (To a party seated round some expiring embers.)


s: Old gentleman, apart, why sit ye moping here?


s: Ye in the midst should be of all this jovial cheer,


s: Girt round with noise and youthful riot;


s: For with the people, as with women, they


s: Now all too far they wander from the right;


s: I praise the good old ways, to them I hold,


s: When we ourselves were foremost in men's sight.


s: Ne'er were we 'mong your dullards found,


s: And what we ought not, that to do were fair;


s: Yet now are all things turning round and round,


s: When on firm basis we would them maintain.


s: Who, as a rule, a treatise now would care


s: Has youth displayed such arrogant pretence.


s: Since for the last time I the Brocken scale,


s: That folk are ripe for doomsday, now one sees;


s: And just because my cask begins to fail,


s: Without its counterpart on earth; there's naught,


s: No dagger here, which bath not flow'd with blood,


s: No chalice, whence, into some healthy frame


s: Hath not been poured hot poison's wasting flood.


s: No trinket, but bath wrought some woman's shame,


s: Gossip! For wares like these the time's gone by,


s: What's done is past! what's past is done!


s: Thinking to push, thyself art push'd along.


s: Adam's first wife. Of her rich locks beware!


s: That charm in which she's parallel'd by few;


s: When in its toils a youth she doth ensnare,


s: There sit a pair, the old one with the young;


s: Already they have bravely danced and sprung!


s: Another dance begins; we'll join it, come away!


s: He's most annoyed, so soon as we advance;


s: As he in his old mill, then doubtless he


s: If ye forthwith salute him with respect profound!


s: Still here! what arrogance! unheard of quite!


s: Vanish; we now have fill'd the world with light!


s: Wise as we are, yet Tegel hath its ghost!


s: How long at this conceit I've swept with all my might,


s: Lost is the labour: 'tis unheard of quite!


s: Cease here to teaze us any more, I pray.


s: Spirits, I plainly to your face declare:


s: To-night, I see, I shall in naught succeed;


s: Now in some puddle will he take his station,


s: Such is his mode of seeking consolation;


s: Where leeches, feasting on his rump, will drain


s: Spirits alike and spirit from his brain.


s: But why the charming damsel leave, I pray,


s: Who to you in the dance so sweetly sang?


s: Out of her mouth a small red mouse there sprang.


s: Suppose there did! One must not be too nice.


s: 'Twas well it was not grey, let that suffice.


s: Who 'mid his pleasures for a trifle cares?


s: Standing far off, a lone child, pale and fair?


s: Slow from the spot her drooping form she tears,


s: And seems with shackled feet to move along;


s: That she the likeness of my Gretchen wears.


s: Gaze not upon her! 'Tis not good! Forbear!


s: An idol. Such to meet with, bodes no good;


s: That rigid look of hers doth freeze man's blood,


s: And well-nigh petrifies his heart to stone:--


s: Which there was no fond loving hand to close.


s: That my sweet Gretchen's form, so oft caress'd!


s: What bliss! what torture! vainly I essay


s: How strangely doth a single crimson line


s: Around that lovely neck its coil entwine,


s: It shows no broader than a knife's blunt edge!


s: That she beneath her arm her head can bear,


s: Since Perseus cut it off.--But you I swear


s: Will be the last of seven, and spick-span new--'


s: You on the Blocksberg I'm rejoiced to find,


s: That 'tis your most appropriate sphere is certain.


s: Vales, where mists still shift and play,


s: Schnick, schnick, schnack, with nasal hum,


s: With small sharp shears, in insect guise


s: Our shoes, alas, are now danced through,


s: Though spirits, yet their limbs, we know,


s: O'er reed and leaf the zephyr breathes--


s: in the dungeon as a malefactor and reserved for horrid tortures!


s: malicious rage thy fiendish eyes! Stand and brave me with thine


s: insupportable presence! Imprisoned! In hopeless misery! Delivered


s: humanity I--And me, the while, thou wert lulling with tasteless


s: dissipations, concealing from me her growing anguish, and leaving


s: Hound! Execrable monster!--Back with him, oh thou infinite


s: his belly before me in the dust, whilst I spurn him with my foot,


s: conceivable, that more than one human creature has ever sunk into


s: Now we are once again at our wit's end, just where the reason of


s: you mortals snaps! Why dost thou seek our fellowship, if thou


s: canst not go through with it? Wilt fly, and art not proof against


s: linked me with this base associate, who feeds on mischief and


s: Save her!--or woe to thee! The direst of curses on thee for


s: I cannot loose the bands of the avenger, nor withdraw his


s: bolts.--Save her!--Who was it plunged her into perdition? I or


s: Would'st grasp the thunder? Well for you, poor mortals, that 'tis


s: And the danger to which thou dust expose thyself? Know, the guilt


s: This too from thee? The death and downfall of a world be on thee,


s: thou possess thyself of the keys and lead her forth with human


s: What weave they yonder round the Ravenstone?


s: They're soaring, swooping, betiding, stooping.


s: (with a bunch of keys and a lamp before a small iron door)


s: Man's concentrated woe o'erwhelms me here!


s: She dwells immur'd within these dripping walls;


s: Thou dread'st to see her face once more?


s: On! While thou dalliest, draws her death-hour near.


s: Then became I a wood-bird, and sang on the spray,


s: Fly away! little bird, fly away! fly away!


s: Ah! she forebodes not that her lover's near,


s: The clanking chains, the rustling straw, to hear.


s: Woe! woe! they come! oh bitter 'tis to die!


s: Hush! hush! be still! I come to set thee free!


s: Thou wilt awake the jailor with thy cry!


s: Fair was I too, and that was my undoing.


s: Torn lies the garland, the fair blossoms strew'd.


s: Spare me! What harm have I e'er done to thee?


s: I ne'er have seen thee in my life before!


s: They took it from me but to give me pain,


s: And now, they say that I my child have slain.


s: Then they sing songs about me,--'tis wicked of the throng--


s: To loose the bonds of wretchedness and woe.


s: Oh, let us kneel and move the saints by prayer!


s: Free am I! There's none shall hinder me.


s: Amidst all the howling of hell's fiery flood,


s: The scoff and the scorn of its devilish crew,


s: The tones of his voice, sweet and loving, I knew.


s: 'Tis he! 'Tis he! where's now the torturing pain?


s: Where are the fetters? where the dungeon's gloom?


s: Where the first time I caught a glimpse of thee.


s: Where I and Martha for thy coming stay'd.


s: I love to linger where thou stayest. (caressing him.)


s: From thy dear looks and words would o'er me steal?


s: As thou wouldst stifle me thou then didst kiss!--


s: Come! Follow me, my dearest love, be bold!


s: I'll cherish thee with ardour thousand-fold;


s: And art thou he? and art thou really he?


s: And thou wilt take me to thine arms again.


s: How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me?--


s: And dost thou know, love, whom thou wouldst set free?


s: Come! come! already night begins to wane.


s: Was it not given to thee and me--thee too?


s: 'Tis thou thyself! I scarce believe it yet.


s: Give me thy hand! It is no dream! 'Tis true!


s: Thine own dear hand!--But how is this? 'Tis wet?


s: And the little one place on my right breast.


s: Methinks I would force myself on thee, love,


s: And thou dost spurn me, and back retreat--


s: Yet 'tis thyself, thy fond kind looks I see.


s: If thou dost feel 'tis I, then come with me!


s: Oh Henry! would that I could go with thee!


s: I dare not go! I've naught to hope for more.


s: What boots it to escape? They lurk for me!


s: 'Tis wretched, in foreign lands to stray.


s: She winks not, she nods not, her head it droops sore;


s: She slept, that we might taste of bliss:


s: Since here avails nor argument nor prayer,


s: I have done all to please thee in the past!


s: The day of judgment too will soon appear!


s: It should have been my bridal! No one tell,


s: That thy poor Gretchen thou hast known too well.


s: The crowd doth gather, in silence it rolls;


s: The staff is broken,--the death-bell tolls,--


s: The silence of the grave now broods around!


s: What from the floor ascendeth like a ghost?


s: 'Tis he! 'Tis he! Him from my presence chase!


s: Judgment of God! To thee my soul I give!


s: Come, come! With her I'll else abandon thee!


s: I'M going out to clean the pasture spring;


s: (And wait to watch the water clear, I may):


s: That's standing by the mother. It's so young,


s: It totters when she licks it with her tongue.


s: SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,


s: That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,


s: And spills the upper boulders in the sun;


s: And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.


s: Where they have left not one stone on a stone,


s: But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,


s: To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,


s: No one has seen them made or heard them made,


s: But at spring mending-time we find them there.


s: I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;


s: To each the boulders that have fallen to each.


s: And some are loaves and some so nearly balls


s: We have to use a spell to make them balance:


s: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"


s: We wear our fingers rough with handling them.


s: There where it is we do not need the wall:


s: And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.


s: He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."


s: Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder


s: "Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it


s: Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.


s: Something there is that doesn't love a wall,


s: That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,


s: But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather


s: Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top


s: In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.


s: Not of woods only and the shade of trees.


s: He will not go behind his father's saying,


s: And he likes having thought of it so well


s: He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."


s: MARY sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table


s: Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step,


s: She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage


s: To meet him in the doorway with the news


s: And put him on his guard. "Silas is back."


s: She pushed him outward with her through the door


s: And shut it after her. "Be kind," she said.


s: She took the market things from Warren's arms


s: And set them on the porch, then drew him down


s: "When was I ever anything but kind to him?


s: But I'll not have the fellow back," he said.


s: 'If he left then,' I said, 'that ended it.'


s: What good is he? Who else will harbour him


s: What help he is there's no depending on.


s: Off he goes always when I need him most.


s: 'He thinks he ought to earn a little pay,


s: So he won't have to beg and be beholden.'


s: 'All right,' I say, 'I can't afford to pay


s: Any fixed wages, though I wish I could.'


s: 'Someone else can.' 'Then someone else will have to.'


s: If that was what it was. You can be certain,


s: When he begins like that, there's someone at him


s: Trying to coax him off with pocket-money,--


s: In haying time, when any help is scarce.


s: In winter he comes back to us. I'm done."


s: "Sh! not so loud: he'll hear you," Mary said.


s: "I want him to: he'll have to soon or late."


s: "He's worn out. He's asleep beside the stove.


s: When I came up from Rowe's I found him here,


s: Huddled against the barn-door fast asleep,


s: A miserable sight, and frightening, too--


s: You needn't smile--I didn't recognise him--


s: I wasn't looking for him--and he's changed.


s: "He didn't say. I dragged him to the house,


s: And gave him tea and tried to make him smoke.


s: I tried to make him talk about his travels.


s: Nothing would do: he just kept nodding off."


s: He said he'd come to ditch the meadow for me."


s: "Of course he did. What would you have him say?


s: Surely you wouldn't grudge the poor old man


s: Some humble way to save his self-respect.


s: He meant to clear the upper pasture, too.


s: That sounds like something you have heard before?


s: Warren, I wish you could have heard the way


s: He jumbled everything. I stopped to look


s: Two or three times--he made me feel so queer--


s: The boy you had in haying four years since.


s: He's finished school, and teaching in his college.


s: Silas declares you'll have to get him back.


s: He says they two will make a team for work:


s: Between them they will lay this farm as smooth!


s: The way he mixed that in with other things.


s: He thinks young Wilson a likely lad, though daft


s: "Yes, I took care to keep well out of earshot."


s: "Well, those days trouble Silas like a dream.


s: You wouldn't think they would. How some things linger!


s: Harold's young college boy's assurance piqued him.


s: After so many years he still keeps finding


s: Good arguments he sees he might have used.


s: To think of the right thing to say too late.


s: Harold's associated in his mind with Latin.


s: He asked me what I thought of Harold's saying


s: He said he couldn't make the boy believe


s: He could find water with a hazel prong--


s: Which showed how much good school had ever done him.


s: He wanted to go over that. But most of all


s: He thinks if he could have another chance


s: To teach him how to build a load of hay----"


s: "I know, that's Silas' one accomplishment.


s: And tags and numbers it for future reference,


s: He takes it out in bunches like big birds' nests.


s: He's trying to lift, straining to lift himself."


s: "He thinks if he could teach him that, he'd be


s: Some good perhaps to someone in the world.


s: He hates to see a boy the fool of books.


s: Poor Silas, so concerned for other folk,


s: And nothing to look backward to with pride,


s: And nothing to look forward to with hope,


s: Part of a moon was falling down the west,


s: Dragging the whole sky with it to the hills.


s: Its light poured softly in her lap. She saw


s: And spread her apron to it. She put out her hand


s: Among the harp-like morning-glory strings,


s: Taut with the dew from garden bed to eaves,


s: That wrought on him beside her in the night.


s: "Warren," she said, "he has come home to die:


s: You needn't be afraid he'll leave you this time."


s: It all depends on what you mean by home.


s: Than was the hound that came a stranger to us


s: Out of the woods, worn out upon the trail."


s: "Home is the place where, when you have to go there,


s: Something you somehow haven't to deserve."


s: Warren leaned out and took a step or two,


s: Picked up a little stick, and brought it back


s: And broke it in his hand and tossed it by.


s: Than on his brother? Thirteen little miles


s: As the road winds would bring him to his door.


s: Silas has walked that far no doubt to-day.


s: Why didn't he go there? His brother's rich,


s: "I think his brother ought to help, of course.


s: I'll see to that if there is need. He ought of right


s: To take him in, and might be willing to--


s: But have some pity on Silas. Do you think


s: Or anything he looked for from his brother,


s: He'd keep so still about him all this time?"


s: Silas is what he is--we wouldn't mind him--


s: But just the kind that kinsfolk can't abide.


s: He don't know why he isn't quite as good


s: To please his brother, worthless though he is."


s: "No, but he hurt my heart the way he lay


s: And rolled his old head on that sharp-edged chair-back.


s: He wouldn't let me put him on the lounge.


s: I made the bed up for him there to-night.


s: You'll be surprised at him--how much he's broken.


s: His working days are done; I'm sure of it."


s: "I haven't been. Go, look, see for yourself.


s: He has a plan. You mustn't laugh at him.


s: He may not speak of it, and then he may.


s: I'll sit and see if that small sailing cloud


s: Then there were three there, making a dim row,


s: The moon, the little silver cloud, and she.


s: Warren returned--too soon, it seemed to her,


s: Slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited.


s: THE mountain held the town as in a shadow


s: I saw so much before I slept there once:


s: I noticed that I missed stars in the west,


s: Near me it seemed: I felt it like a wall


s: Behind which I was sheltered from a wind.


s: And yet between the town and it I found,


s: When I walked forth at dawn to see new things,


s: Were fields, a river, and beyond, more fields.


s: And made a widespread brawl on cobble-stones;


s: But the signs showed what it had done in spring;


s: Good grass-land gullied out, and in the grass


s: Ridges of sand, and driftwood stripped of bark.


s: I crossed the river and swung round the mountain.


s: It seemed no hand to stop him altogether.


s: Then I was wrong: the town of my sojourn,


s: Beyond the bridge, was not that of the mountain,


s: But only felt at night its shadowy presence.


s: "Where is your village? Very far from here?"


s: "There is no village--only scattered farms.


s: That thing takes all the room!" He moved his goad.


s: The mountain stood there to be pointed at.


s: And then there was a wall of trees with trunks:


s: After that only tops of trees, and cliffs


s: Is that the way to reach the top from here?--


s: Not for this morning, but some other time:


s: I must be getting back to breakfast now."


s: "I don't advise your trying from this side.


s: There is no proper path, but those that have


s: Been up, I understand, have climbed from Ladd's.


s: That's five miles back. You can't mistake the place:


s: They logged it there last winter some way up.


s: I'd take you, but I'm bound the other way."


s: Deer-hunting and trout-fishing. There's a brook


s: That starts up on it somewhere--I've heard say


s: Right on the top, tip-top--a curious thing.


s: But what would interest you about the brook,


s: It's always cold in summer, warm in winter.


s: Are inch-deep with the frosty spines and bristles--


s: You know the kind. Then let the sun shine on it!"


s: "There ought to be a view around the world


s: From such a mountain--if it isn't wooded


s: Clear to the top." I saw through leafy screens


s: Great granite terraces in sun and shadow,


s: Shelves one could rest a knee on getting up--


s: With depths behind him sheer a hundred feet;


s: Or turn and sit on and look out and down,


s: With little ferns in crevices at his elbow.


s: "As to that I can't say. But there's the spring,


s: Right on the summit, almost like a fountain.


s: And a good distance down might not be noticed


s: Somewhere in Ireland on a mountain top."


s: "But a lake's different. What about the spring?"


s: That's why I don't advise your trying this side.


s: He tried this side. I've always meant to go


s: And look myself, but you know how it is:


s: It doesn't seem so much to climb a mountain


s: You've worked around the foot of all your life.


s: With a big stick, the same as when the cows


s: Haven't come down to the bars at milking time?


s: Or with a shotgun for a stray black bear?


s: 'Twouldn't seem real to climb for climbing it."


s: "I shouldn't climb it if I didn't want to--


s: Not for the sake of climbing. What's its name?"


s: "We call it Hor: I don't know if that's right."


s: "Can one walk around it? Would it be too far?"


s: "You can drive round and keep in Lunenburg,


s: The boundary lines keep in so close to it.


s: Hor is the township, and the township's Hor--


s: And a few houses sprinkled round the foot,


s: Like boulders broken off the upper cliff,


s: Rolled out a little farther than the rest."


s: "Warm in December, cold in June, you say?"


s: "I don't suppose the water's changed at all.


s: Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm.


s: But all the fun's in how you say a thing."


s: Was no bigger than a----" What, I did not hear.


s: He drew the oxen toward him with light touches


s: Of his slim goad on nose and offside flank,


s: Gave them their marching orders and was moving.


s: Such a great man. It doesn't see him often


s: Of late years, though he keeps the old homestead


s: And sends the children down there with their mother


s: To run wild in the summer--a little wild.


s: Sometimes he joins them for a day or two


s: And sees old friends he somehow can't get near.


s: They meet him in the general store at night,


s: They seem afraid. He wouldn't have it so:


s: Though a great scholar, he's a democrat,


s: His train being late he missed another train


s: And had four hours to wait at Woodsville Junction


s: After eleven o'clock at night. Too tired


s: "No room," the night clerk said. "Unless----"


s: Woodsville's a place of shrieks and wandering lamps


s: And cars that shook and rattle--and one hotel.


s: "I know him: he's all right. A man's a man.


s: Separate beds of course you understand."


s: The night clerk blinked his eyes and dared him on.


s: "Who's that man sleeping in the office chair?


s: "He was afraid of being robbed or murdered.


s: The night clerk led him up three flights of stairs


s: And down a narrow passage full of doors,


s: At the last one of which he knocked and entered.


s: "Lafe, here's a fellow wants to share your room."


s: "Show him this way. I'm not afraid of him.


s: I'm not so drunk I can't take care of myself."


s: The night clerk clapped a bedstead on the foot.


s: "This will be yours. Good-night," he said, and went.


s: Hold on, there's something I don't think of now


s: Man that knew anything I happened in with.


s: I'll ask you later--don't let me forget it."


s: The Doctor looked at Lafe and looked away.


s: He sat there creased and shining in the light,


s: Fumbling the buttons in a well-starched shirt.


s: I've felt mean lately; mean's no name for it.


s: I just found what the matter was to-night:


s: When it outgrows the wire band of its name tag.


s: I blamed it on the hot spell we've been having.


s: 'Twas nothing but my foolish hanging back,


s: Number eighteen this is. What size do you wear?"


s: The Doctor caught his throat convulsively.


s: And come to think I must have back at home


s: More than a hundred collars, size fourteen.


s: Too bad to waste them all. You ought to have them.


s: They're yours and welcome; let me send them to you.


s: What makes you stand there on one leg like that?


s: You act as if you wished you hadn't come.


s: Sit down or lie down, friend; you make me nervous."


s: And propped himself at bay against a pillow.


s: You can't rest that way. Let me pull your shoes off."


s: "Don't touch me, please--I say, don't touch me, please.


s: "Just as you say. Have it your own way then.


s: 'My man' is it? You talk like a professor.


s: Speaking of who's afraid of who, however,


s: I'm thinking I have more to lose than you


s: Who wants to cut your number fourteen throat!


s: Where are you moving over to? Stay still.


s: When I'm with people I don't trust at night."


s: Right on the counterpane--that I do trust you?"


s: "You'd say so, Mister Man.--I'm a collector.


s: My ninety isn't mine--you won't think that.


s: All round the country for the Weekly News,


s: Published in Bow. You know the Weekly News?"


s: Now we are getting on together--talking.


s: I'm sort of Something for it at the front.


s: My business is to find what people want:


s: They pay for it, and so they ought to have it.


s: A good deal comes on me when all is said.


s: You know what that is, sort of double-dyed;


s: Fairbanks, he says to me, 'Help us this year,'


s: Meaning by us their ticket. 'No,' I says,


s: 'I can't and won't. You've been in long enough:


s: It's time you turned around and boosted us.


s: You'll have to pay me more than ten a week


s: "You see I'm in with everybody, know 'em all.


s: I almost know their farms as well as they do."


s: "You drive around? It must be pleasant work."


s: "It's business, but I can't say it's not fun.


s: What I like best's the lay of different farms,


s: Coming out on them from a stretch of woods,


s: Or over a hill or round a sudden corner.


s: I like to find folks getting out in spring,


s: Raking the dooryard, working near the house.


s: Later they get out further in the fields.


s: Everything's shut sometimes except the barn;


s: The family's all away in some back meadow.


s: There's a hay load a-coming--when it comes.


s: The fields are stripped to lawn, the garden patches


s: Stripped to bare ground, the apple trees


s: To whips and poles. There's nobody about.


s: The chimney, though, keeps up a good brisk smoking.


s: And I lie back and ride. I take the reins


s: Only when someone's coming, and the mare


s: Stops when she likes: I tell her when to go.


s: I've spoiled Jemima in more ways than one.


s: She's got so she turns in at every house


s: It's seldom I get down except for meals, though.


s: Folks entertain me from the kitchen doorstep,


s: All in a family row down to the youngest."


s: "One would suppose they might not be as glad


s: Because I want their dollar. I don't want


s: I'm there, and they can pay me if they like.


s: Sorry there is no cup to give you a drink.


s: I drink out of the bottle--not your style.


s: "Just as you say. Here's looking at you then.--


s: You'll rest easier when I'm gone, perhaps--


s: Lie down--let yourself go and get some sleep.


s: But first--let's see--what was I going to ask you?


s: Those collars--who shall I address them to,


s: Suppose you aren't awake when I come back?"


s: "Really, friend, I can't let you. You--may need them."


s: "Not till I shrink, when they'll be out of style."


s: "I don't know who I rather would have have them.


s: They're only turning yellow where they are.


s: I'll put the light out. Don't you wait for me:


s: I've just begun the night. You get some sleep.


s: I'll knock so-fashion and peep round the door


s: When I come back so you'll know who it is.


s: There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people.


s: I don't want you should shoot me in the head.


s: What am I doing carrying off this bottle?


s: The Doctor slid a little down the pillow.


s: HE saw her from the bottom of the stairs


s: Before she saw him. She was starting down,


s: Looking back over her shoulder at some fear.


s: She took a doubtful step and then undid it


s: To raise herself and look again. He spoke


s: Advancing toward her: "What is it you see


s: From up there always--for I want to know."


s: She turned and sank upon her skirts at that,


s: And her face changed from terrified to dull.


s: He said to gain time: "What is it you see,"


s: "I will find out now--you must tell me, dear."


s: With the least stiffening of her neck and silence.


s: She let him look, sure that he wouldn't see,


s: Blind creature; and a while he didn't see.


s: But at last he murmured, "Oh," and again, "Oh."


s: "You don't," she challenged. "Tell me what it is."


s: I must be wonted to it--that's the reason.


s: The little graveyard where my people are!


s: So small the window frames the whole of it.


s: Not so much larger than a bedroom, is it?


s: There are three stones of slate and one of marble,


s: Broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlight


s: On the sidehill. We haven't to mind those.


s: She withdrew shrinking from beneath his arm


s: That rested on the banister, and slid downstairs;


s: And turned on him with such a daunting look,


s: He said twice over before he knew himself:


s: "Can't a man speak of his own child he's lost?"


s: "Not you! Oh, where's my hat? Oh, I don't need it!


s: I don't know rightly whether any man can."


s: "Amy! Don't go to someone else this time.


s: Listen to me. I won't come down the stairs."


s: He sat and fixed his chin between his fists.


s: "There's something I should like to ask you, dear."


s: Her fingers moved the latch for all reply.


s: So as to please you. But I might be taught


s: I should suppose. I can't say I see how.


s: With women-folk. We could have some arrangement


s: By which I'd bind myself to keep hands off


s: Though I don't like such things 'twixt those that love.


s: Two that don't love can't live together without them.


s: But two that do can't live together with them."


s: She moved the latch a little. "Don't--don't go.


s: Don't carry it to someone else this time.


s: Tell me about it if it's something human.


s: Unlike other folks as your standing there


s: Apart would make me out. Give me my chance.


s: I do think, though, you overdo it a little.


s: What was it brought you up to think it the thing


s: To take your mother-loss of a first child


s: You'd think his memory might be satisfied----"


s: You make me angry. I'll come down to you.


s: God, what a woman! And it's come to this,


s: A man can't speak of his own child that's dead."


s: With your own hand--how could you?--his little grave;


s: Leap up, like that, like that, and land so lightly


s: And roll back down the mound beside the hole.


s: I thought, Who is that man? I didn't know you.


s: And I crept down the stairs and up the stairs


s: Then you came in. I heard your rumbling voice


s: Out in the kitchen, and I don't know why,


s: But I went near to see with my own eyes.


s: You could sit there with the stains on your shoes


s: Of the fresh earth from your own baby's grave


s: Outside there in the entry, for I saw it."


s: "I shall laugh the worst laugh I ever laughed.


s: I'm cursed. God, if I don't believe I'm cursed."


s: "I can repeat the very words you were saying.


s: Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.'


s: Think of it, talk like that at such a time!


s: What had how long it takes a birch to rot


s: To do with what was in the darkened parlour.


s: You couldn't care! The nearest friends can go


s: With anyone to death, comes so far short


s: They might as well not try to go at all.


s: No, from the time when one is sick to death,


s: Friends make pretence of following to the grave,


s: But before one is in it, their minds are turned


s: And making the best of their way back to life


s: And living people, and things they understand.


s: But the world's evil. I won't have grief so


s: If I can change it. Oh, I won't, I won't!"


s: "There, you have said it all and you feel better.


s: You won't go now. You're crying. Close the door.


s: The heart's gone out of it: why keep it up.


s: Amy! There's someone coming down the road!"


s: "You--oh, you think the talk is all. I must go--


s: Somewhere out of this house. How can I make you----"


s: "If--you--do!" She was opening the door wider.


s: "Where do you mean to go? First tell me that.


s: I'll follow and bring you back by force. I will!--"


s: To catch it in a sort of special picture


s: Set well back from the road in rank lodged grass,


s: A front with just a door between two windows,


s: Fresh painted by the shower a velvet black.


s: He made as if to hold it at arm's length


s: Or put the leaves aside that framed it in.


s: "Pretty," he said. "Come in. No one will care."


s: The path was a vague parting in the grass


s: We pressed our faces to the pane. "You see," he said,


s: "Everything's as she left it when she died.


s: Her sons won't sell the house or the things in it.


s: They say they mean to come and summer here


s: Where they were boys. They haven't come this year.


s: They live so far away--one is out west--


s: It will be hard for them to keep their word.


s: Anyway they won't have the place disturbed."


s: A buttoned hair-cloth lounge spread scrolling arms


s: Sooner or later came and leaned, half knelt


s: Against the lounge beside it, though I doubt


s: If such unlifelike lines kept power to stir


s: He fell at Gettysburg or Fredericksburg,


s: I ought to know--it makes a difference which:


s: Fredericksburg wasn't Gettysburg, of course.


s: A little cottage this has always seemed;


s: Since she went more than ever, but before--


s: That had gone out of it, the father first,


s: Then the two sons, till she was left alone.


s: (Nothing could draw her after those two sons.


s: She had at some cost taught them after years.)


s: I mean by the world's having passed it by--


s: To measure how far fifty years have brought us.


s: Why not sit down if you are in no haste?


s: The warping boards pull out their own old nails


s: With none to tread and put them in their place.


s: She had her own idea of things, the old lady.


s: And she liked talk. She had seen Garrison


s: And Whittier, and had her story of them.


s: One wasn't long in learning that she thought


s: It wasn't just to keep the States together,


s: Nor just to free the slaves, though it did both.


s: She wouldn't have believed those ends enough


s: To have given outright for them all she gave.


s: Her giving somehow touched the principle


s: That all men are created free and equal.


s: And to hear her quaint phrases--so removed


s: From the world's view to-day of all those things.


s: What did he mean? Of course the easy way


s: But never mind, the Welshman got it planted


s: Where it will trouble us a thousand years.


s: You couldn't tell her what the West was saying,


s: And what the South to her serene belief.


s: Black she had scarcely seen, and yellow never.


s: But how could they be made so very unlike


s: By the same hand working in the same stuff?


s: What are you going to do with such a person?


s: Strange how such innocence gets its own way.


s: I shouldn't be surprised if in this world


s: It were the force that would at last prevail.


s: Do you know but for her there was a time


s: When to please younger members of the church,


s: Or rather say non-members in the church,


s: I would have changed the Creed a very little?


s: It never got so far as that; but the bare thought


s: And of her half asleep was too much for me.


s: Why, I might wake her up and startle her.


s: That seemed too pagan to our liberal youth.


s: You know they suffered from a general onslaught.


s: And well, if they weren't true why keep right on


s: Saying them like the heathen? We could drop them.


s: Such a phrase couldn't have meant much to her.


s: But suppose she had missed it from the Creed


s: As a child misses the unsaid Good-night,


s: And falls asleep with heartache--how should I feel?


s: I'm just as glad she made me keep hands off,


s: Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt


s: It will turn true again, for so it goes.


s: Most of the change we think we see in life


s: Is due to truths being in and out of favour.


s: To the truths we keep coming back and back to.


s: So desert it would have to be, so walled


s: The pains of conquering to force change on.


s: Scattered oases where men dwelt, but mostly


s: Blown over and over themselves in idleness.


s: Sand grains should sugar in the natal dew


s: The babe born to the desert, the sand storm


s: "There are bees in this wall." He struck the clapboards,


s: Fierce heads looked out; small bodies pivoted.


s: We rose to go. Sunset blazed on the windows.


s: "YOU ought to have seen what I saw on my way


s: To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:


s: Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,


s: Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum


s: In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!


s: And all ripe together, not some of them green


s: And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!"


s: "I don't know what part of the pasture you mean."


s: "You know where they cut off the woods--let me see--


s: No longer than that?--and the following fall


s: The fire ran and burned it all up but the wall."


s: "Why, there hasn't been time for the bushes to grow.


s: That's always the way with the blueberries, though:


s: There may not have been the ghost of a sign


s: Of them anywhere under the shade of the pine,


s: But get the pine out of the way, you may burn


s: Or grass-blade is left, not to mention a stick,


s: And presto, they're up all around you as thick


s: And hard to explain as a conjuror's trick."


s: "It must be on charcoal they fatten their fruit.


s: I taste in them sometimes the flavour of soot.


s: And after all really they're ebony skinned:


s: The blue's but a mist from the breath of the wind,


s: A tarnish that goes at a touch of the hand,


s: And less than the tan with which pickers are tanned."


s: "Does Mortenson know what he has, do you think?"


s: "He may and not care and so leave the chewink


s: To gather them for him--you know what he is.


s: He won't make the fact that they're rightfully his


s: An excuse for keeping us other folk out."


s: "The best of it was that I did. Do you know,


s: I was just getting through what the field had to show


s: When who should come by, with a democrat-load


s: Of all the young chattering Lorens alive,


s: But Loren, the fatherly, out for a drive."


s: "He saw you, then? What did he do? Did he frown?"


s: "He just kept nodding his head up and down.


s: You know how politely he always goes by.


s: But he thought a big thought--I could tell by his eye--


s: Which being expressed, might be this in effect:


s: 'I have left those there berries, I shrewdly suspect,


s: To ripen too long. I am greatly to blame.'"


s: "He's a thriftier person than some I could name."


s: "He seems to be thrifty; and hasn't he need,


s: With the mouths of all those young Lorens to feed?


s: He has brought them all up on wild berries, they say,


s: Like birds. They store a great many away.


s: They eat them the year round, and those they don't eat


s: They sell in the store and buy shoes for their feet."


s: "Who cares what they say? It's a nice way to live,


s: Just taking what Nature is willing to give,


s: Not forcing her hand with harrow and plow."


s: "I wish you had seen his perpetual bow--


s: And the air of the youngsters! Not one of them turned,


s: And they looked so solemn-absurdly concerned."


s: "I wish I knew half what the flock of them know


s: Of where all the berries and other things grow,


s: Cranberries in bogs and raspberries on top


s: Of the boulder-strewn mountain, and when they will crop.


s: I met them one day and each had a flower


s: Stuck into his berries as fresh as a shower;


s: Some strange kind--they told me it hadn't a name."


s: "I've told you how once not long after we came,


s: For the picking. The rascal, he said he'd be glad


s: To tell if he knew. But the year had been bad.


s: There had been some berries--but those were all gone.


s: He didn't say where they had been. He went on:


s: 'I'm sure--I'm sure'--as polite as could be.


s: He spoke to his wife in the door, 'Let me see,


s: Mame, we don't know any good berrying place?'


s: It was all he could do to keep a straight face.


s: "If he thinks all the fruit that grows wild is for him,


s: He'll find he's mistaken. See here, for a whim,


s: We'll pick in the Mortensons' pasture this year.


s: We'll go in the morning, that is, if it's clear,


s: And the sun shines out warm: the vines must be wet.


s: It's so long since I picked I almost forget


s: How we used to pick berries: we took one look round,


s: Then sank out of sight like trolls underground,


s: And saw nothing more of each other, or heard,


s: Unless when you said I was keeping a bird


s: Away from its nest, and I said it was you.


s: 'Well, one of us is.' For complaining it flew


s: Around and around us. And then for a while


s: We picked, till I feared you had wandered a mile,


s: And I thought I had lost you. I lifted a shout


s: Too loud for the distance you were, it turned out,


s: For when you made answer, your voice was as low


s: As talking--you stood up beside me, you know."


s: "We sha'n't have the place to ourselves to enjoy--


s: Not likely, when all the young Lorens deploy.


s: They'll be there to-morrow, or even to-night.


s: They won't be too friendly--they may be polite--


s: To people they look on as having no right


s: To pick where they're picking. But we won't complain.


s: You ought to have seen how it looked in the rain,


s: The fruit mixed with water in layers of leaves,


s: To have you come and camp here on our land.


s: And see the way you lived, but I don't know!


s: Than I can raise my voice or want to lift


s: My hand (oh, I can lift it when I have to).


s: There's nothing but a voice-like left inside


s: That seems to tell me how I ought to feel,


s: And would feel if I wasn't all gone wrong.


s: You take the lake. I look and look at it.


s: I see it's a fair, pretty sheet of water.


s: The advantages it has, so long and narrow,


s: Like a deep piece of some old running river


s: Cut short off at both ends. It lies five miles


s: Straight away through the mountain notch


s: From the sink window where I wash the plates,


s: And all our storms come up toward the house,


s: Drawing the slow waves whiter and whiter and whiter.


s: It took my mind off doughnuts and soda biscuit


s: To step outdoors and take the water dazzle


s: A sunny morning, or take the rising wind


s: About my face and body and through my wrapper,


s: When a storm threatened from the Dragon's Den,


s: And a cold chill shivered across the lake.


s: I see it's a fair, pretty sheet of water,


s: I expect, though, everyone's heard of it.


s: You let things more like feathers regulate


s: Your going and coming. And you like it here?


s: I can see how you might. But I don't know!


s: It would be different if more people came,


s: For then there would be business. As it is,


s: The cottages Len built, sometimes we rent them,


s: Sometimes we don't. We've a good piece of shore


s: That ought to be worth something, and may yet.


s: He looks on the bright side of everything,


s: Including me. He thinks I'll be all right


s: Lowe is the only doctor's dared to say so--


s: It's rest I want--there, I have said it out--


s: And washing dishes after them--from doing


s: Things over and over that just won't stay done.


s: By good rights I ought not to have so much


s: Put on me, but there seems no other way.


s: Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.


s: He says the best way out is always through.


s: As that I can see no way out but through--


s: Leastways for me--and then they'll be convinced.


s: It's not that Len don't want the best for me.


s: Beside the lake from where that day I showed you


s: We used to live--ten miles from anywhere.


s: We didn't change without some sacrifice,


s: His work's a man's, of course, from sun to sun,


s: But he works when he works as hard as I do--


s: Though there's small profit in comparisons.


s: (Women and men will make them all the same.)


s: But work ain't all. Len undertakes too much.


s: It's highways, and he's got too many men


s: Around him to look after that make waste.


s: And proud, too, of themselves for doing so.


s: We have four here to board, great good-for-nothings,


s: Sprawling about the kitchen with their talk


s: While I fry their bacon. Much they care!


s: Coming and going all the time, they are:


s: I don't learn what their names are, let alone


s: Their characters, or whether they are safe


s: To have inside the house with doors unlocked.


s: I'm not afraid of them, though, if they're not


s: Afraid of me. There's two can play at that.


s: I have my fancies: it runs in the family.


s: My father's brother wasn't right. They kept him


s: Locked up for years back there at the old farm.


s: I've been away once--yes, I've been away.


s: I wouldn't have sent anyone of mine there;


s: Was the poorhouse, and those who could afford,


s: Rather than send their folks to such a place,


s: Kept them at home; and it does seem more human.


s: But it's not so: the place is the asylum.


s: There they have every means proper to do with,


s: And you aren't darkening other people's lives--


s: Worse than no good to them, and they no good


s: To you in your condition; you can't know


s: Affection or the want of it in that state.


s: I've heard too much of the old-fashioned way.


s: My father's brother, he went mad quite young.


s: Some thought he had been bitten by a dog,


s: But it's more likely he was crossed in love,


s: They soon saw he would do someone a mischief


s: If he wa'n't kept strict watch of, and it ended


s: In father's building him a sort of cage,


s: Or room within a room, of hickory poles,


s: Like stanchions in the barn, from floor to ceiling,--


s: He'd tear to pieces, even a bed to lie on.


s: So they made the place comfortable with straw,


s: Like a beast's stall, to ease their consciences.


s: Of course they had to feed him without dishes.


s: They tried to keep him clothed, but he paraded


s: With his clothes on his arm--all of his clothes.


s: Cruel--it sounds. I 'spose they did the best


s: They knew. And just when he was at the height,


s: Father and mother married, and mother came,


s: A bride, to help take care of such a creature,


s: That was what marrying father meant to her.


s: She had to lie and hear love things made dreadful


s: By his shouts in the night. He'd shout and shout


s: Until the strength was shouted out of him,


s: And his voice died down slowly from exhaustion.


s: He'd pull his bars apart like bow and bow-string,


s: And let them go and make them twang until


s: His hands had worn them smooth as any ox-bow.


s: And then he'd crow as if he thought that child's play--


s: The only fun he had. I've heard them say, though,


s: A sort of catch-all full of attic clutter.


s: I often think of the smooth hickory bars.


s: It got so I would say--you know, half fooling--


s: "It's time I took my turn upstairs in jail"--


s: Just as you will till it becomes a habit.


s: Mind you, I waited till Len said the word.


s: I didn't want the blame if things went wrong.


s: I was glad though, no end, when we moved out,


s: As I said, for a while--but I don't know!


s: Somehow the change wore out like a prescription.


s: And there's more to it than just window-views


s: And living by a lake. I'm past such help--


s: Unless Len took the notion, which he won't,


s: And I won't ask him--it's not sure enough.


s: I 'spose I've got to go the road I'm going:


s: Other folks have to, and why shouldn't I?


s: Drop everything and live out on the ground--


s: But it might be, come night, I shouldn't like it,


s: Or a long rain. I should soon get enough,


s: I've lain awake thinking of you, I'll warrant,


s: More than you have yourself, some of these nights.


s: The wonder was the tents weren't snatched away


s: Bless you, of course, you're keeping me from work,


s: But the thing of it is, I need to be kept.


s: There's work enough to do--there's always that;


s: But behind's behind. The worst that you can do


s: I sha'n't catch up in this world, anyway.


s: I'd rather you'd not go unless you must.


s: MY long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree


s: Beside it, and there may be two or three


s: Essence of winter sleep is on the night,


s: I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight


s: I got from looking through a pane of glass


s: I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough


s: And held against the world of hoary grass.


s: What form my dreaming was about to take.


s: And every fleck of russet showing clear.


s: It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.


s: I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.


s: There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,


s: Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.


s: No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,


s: This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.


s: The woodchuck could say whether it's like his


s: Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,


s: THERE were three in the meadow by the brook


s: Gathering up windrows, piling cocks of hay,


s: With an eye always lifted toward the west


s: One helper, thrusting pitchfork in the ground,


s: Marched himself off the field and home. One stayed.


s: The town-bred farmer failed to understand.


s: "To cock the hay?--because it's going to shower?


s: "You didn't know. But James is one big fool.


s: He thought you meant to find fault with his work.


s: That's what the average farmer would have meant.


s: James would take time, of course, to chew it over


s: Before he acted: he's just got round to act."


s: "He is a fool if that's the way he takes me."


s: "Don't let it bother you. You've found out something.


s: The hand that knows his business won't be told


s: To do work better or faster--those two things.


s: Most likely I'd have served you just the same.


s: But I know you don't understand our ways.


s: You were just talking what was in your mind,


s: What was in all our minds, and you weren't hinting.


s: Named Sanders with a gang of four or five


s: Doing the haying. No one liked the boss.


s: He was one of the kind sports call a spider,


s: All wiry arms and legs that spread out wavy


s: From a humped body nigh as big's a biscuit.


s: But work! that man could work, especially


s: That he kept any hours--not for himself.


s: Daylight and lantern-light were one to him:


s: I've heard him pounding in the barn all night.


s: But what he liked was someone to encourage.


s: Them that he couldn't lead he'd get behind


s: And drive, the way you can, you know, in mowing--


s: Keep at their heels and threaten to mow their legs off.


s: I'd seen about enough of his bulling tricks


s: (We call that bulling). I'd been watching him.


s: So when he paired off with me in the hayfield


s: To load the load, thinks I, Look out for trouble.


s: I built the load and topped it off; old Sanders


s: Combed it down with a rake and says, 'O. K.'


s: Everything went well till we reached the barn


s: Where on a mow it would have been slow lifting.


s: You wouldn't think a fellow'd need much urging


s: Under these circumstances, would you now?


s: But the old fool seizes his fork in both hands,


s: And looking up bewhiskered out of the pit,


s: Shouts like an army captain, 'Let her come!'


s: Thinks I, D'ye mean it? 'What was that you said?'


s: I asked out loud, so's there'd be no mistake,


s: 'Did you say, Let her come?' 'Yes, let her come.'


s: Never you say a thing like that to a man,


s: Not if he values what he is. God, I'd as soon


s: Murdered him as left out his middle name.


s: I'd built the load and knew right where to find it.


s: Two or three forkfuls I picked lightly round for


s: And dumped the rackful on him in ten lots.


s: And caught sight of him treading-water-like,


s: Keeping his head above. 'Damn ye,' I says,


s: 'That gets ye!' He squeaked like a squeezed rat.


s: That was the last I saw or heard of him.


s: I cleaned the rack and drove out to cool off.


s: And sort of waiting to be asked about it,


s: One of the boys sings out, 'Where's the old man?'


s: If ye want him, ye can go and dig him out.'


s: They realized from the way I swobbed my neck


s: More than was needed something must be up.


s: They headed for the barn; I stayed where I was.


s: They told me afterward. First they forked hay,


s: Nothing! They listened for him. Not a rustle.


s: I guess they thought I'd spiked him in the temple


s: Before I buried him, or I couldn't have managed.


s: Out of the barn.' Someone looked in a window,


s: And curse me if he wasn't in the kitchen


s: Slumped way down in a chair, with both his feet


s: Stuck in the oven, the hottest day that summer.


s: He looked so clean disgusted from behind


s: There was no one that dared to stir him up,


s: Or let him know that he was being looked at.


s: (I may have knocked him down); but my just trying


s: He had gone to the house so's not to meet me.


s: After a while picking peas in his garden:


s: He couldn't keep away from doing something."


s: "Weren't you relieved to find he wasn't dead?"


s: "No! and yet I don't know--it's hard to say.


s: "You took an awkward way. Did he discharge you?"


s: "Discharge me? No! He knew I did just right."


s: When all who would come seeking in New Hampshire


s: And those of the name Stark gathered in Bow,


s: A rock-strewn town where farming has fallen off,


s: And sprout-lands flourish where the axe has gone.


s: Thence they were sprung, so numerous a tribe


s: That now not all the houses left in town


s: Made shift to shelter them without the help


s: Of here and there a tent in grove and orchard.


s: They were at Bow, but that was not enough:


s: Nothing would do but they must fix a day


s: That turned them on the world, and try to fathom


s: The past and get some strangeness out of it.


s: But rain spoiled all. The day began uncertain,


s: With clouds low trailing and moments of rain that misted.


s: The young folk held some hope out to each other


s: Till well toward noon when the storm settled down


s: With a swish in the grass. "What if the others


s: Are there," they said. "It isn't going to rain."


s: Strolled thither, not expecting he would find


s: One, and one other, yes, for there were two.


s: The second round the curving hillside road


s: To reconnoitre, and then made up her mind


s: And perhaps hear some word about the weather.


s: This was some Stark she didn't know. He nodded.


s: She swept the heavens, turning on her heel.


s: Provision there had been for just such meeting


s: Drawn on a sort of passport with the branch


s: She made a sudden movement toward her bodice,


s: As one who clasps her heart. They laughed together.


s: "Stark?" he inquired. "No matter for the proof."


s: "You know we might not be and still be cousins:


s: The town is full of Chases, Lowes, and Baileys,


s: All claiming some priority in Starkness.


s: My mother was a Lane, yet might have married


s: Anyone upon earth and still her children


s: Would have been Starks, and doubtless here to-day."


s: Several times over, and by marrying father


s: No more than brought us back into the name."


s: "One ought not to be thrown into confusion


s: But I own what you say makes my head spin.


s: You take my card--you seem so good at such things--


s: And see if you can reckon our cousinship.


s: Why not take seats here on the cellar wall


s: And dangle feet among the raspberry vines?"


s: "Just so--that ought to be enough protection."


s: "Not from the rain. I think it's going to rain."


s: Does the rain seem to you to cool the eyes?"


s: Bowed outward on the mountain half-way up,


s: No one went home that way. The only house


s: Beyond where they were was a shattered seedpod.


s: And below roared a brook hidden in trees,


s: The sound of which was silence for the place.


s: This he sat listening to till she gave judgment.


s: "On father's side, it seems, we're--let me see----"


s: "Don't be too technical.--You have three cards."


s: "Four cards, one yours, three mine, one for each branch


s: "D'you know a person so related to herself


s: "You look so, sitting out here in the rain


s: You never saw before. What will we come to


s: With all this pride of ancestry, we Yankees?


s: I think we're all mad. Tell me why we're here


s: Like wild geese on a lake before a storm?


s: What do we see in such a hole, I wonder."


s: Which means The Seven Caves that We Came out of.


s: This is the pit from which we Starks were digged."


s: "You must be learned. That's what you see in it?"


s: First let me look. I see raspberry vines----"


s: "Oh, if you're going to use your eyes, just hear


s: As pale and dim as a match flame in the sun;


s: He thinks it's dark and it's flooded with daylight."


s: "He's nothing. Listen. When I lean like this


s: I can make out old Grandsir Stark distinctly,--


s: With his pipe in his mouth and his brown jug--


s: Bless you, it isn't Grandsir Stark, it's Granny,


s: But the pipe's there and smoking and the jug.


s: She's after cider, the old girl, she's thirsty;


s: Here's hoping she gets her drink and gets out safely."


s: "Tell me about her. Does she look like me?"


s: "She should, shouldn't she, you're so many times


s: She does look like you. Stay the way you are.


s: The nose is just the same, and so's the chin--


s: Making allowance, making due allowance."


s: "You poor, dear, great, great, great, great Granny!"


s: "See that you get her greatness right. Don't stint her."


s: "Yes, it's important, though you think it isn't.


s: I won't be teased. But see how wet I am."


s: "Yes, you must go; we can't stay here for ever.


s: Strung on your hair won't hurt your summer looks.


s: I wanted to try something with the noise


s: That the brook raises in the empty valley.


s: We have seen visions--now consult the voices.


s: Something I must have learned riding in trains


s: Speaking or singing, and the band-music playing.


s: Perhaps you have the art of what I mean.


s: That a brook makes in such a wild descent.


s: "It's as you throw a picture on a screen:


s: The voices give you what you wish to hear."


s: "Strangely, it's anything they wish to give."


s: "Then I don't know. It must be strange enough.


s: What do you think you're like to hear to-day?"


s: "From the sense of our having been together--


s: But why take time for what I'm like to hear?


s: I'll tell you what the voices really say.


s: You will do very well right where you are


s: A little longer. I mustn't feel too hurried,


s: Or I can't give myself to hear the voices."


s: "Is this some trance you are withdrawing into?"


s: "You must be very still; you mustn't talk."


s: "I don't see very well how you can help it.


s: You want the truth. I speak but by the voices.


s: You see they know I haven't had your name,


s: Though what a name should matter between us----"


s: That you shall find lies in the cellar charred


s: Among the raspberries, and hew and shape it


s: And come and make your summer dwelling here,


s: And perhaps she will come, still unafraid,


s: With flowers in her lap until they fade,


s: But not come in across the sacred sill----"


s: You can see that there's something wrong with it,


s: Or it would speak in dialect. Whose voice


s: Does it purport to speak in? Not old Grandsir's


s: Nor Granny's, surely. Call up one of them.


s: They have best right to be heard in this place."


s: "You seem so partial to our great-grandmother


s: (Nine times removed. Correct me if I err.)


s: Anything she may say. But let me warn you,


s: Folks in her day were given to plain speaking.


s: You think you'd best tempt her at such a time?"


s: "It rests with us always to cut her off."


s: "Well then, it's Granny speaking: 'I dunnow!


s: There ain't no names quite like the old ones though,


s: Nor never will be to my way of thinking.


s: One mustn't bear too hard on the new comers,


s: But there's a dite too many of them for comfort.


s: More of the salt wherewith they're to be salted.


s: Son, you do as you're told! You take the timber--


s: It's as sound as the day when it was cut--


s: And begin over----' There, she'd better stop.


s: You can see what is troubling Granny, though.


s: But don't you think we sometimes make too much


s: Of the old stock? What counts is the ideals,


s: And those will bear some keeping still about."


s: "I can see we are going to be good friends."


s: "I like your 'going to be.' You said just now


s: I let you say all that. But I must go now."


s: How shall we say good-bye in such a case?"


s: "No, I don't trust your eyes. You've said enough.


s: Now give me your hand up.--Pick me that flower."


s: "It ought to be in rain. Sometime in rain.


s: In rain to-morrow, shall we, if it rains?


s: But if we must, in sunshine." So she went.


s: "It's you," she said. "I can't get up. Forgive me


s: I'm getting too old for my size, I tell them.


s: My fingers are about all I've the use of


s: I help out with this beadwork what I can."


s: "That's a smart pair of pumps you're beading there.


s: I can't keep track of other people's daughters.


s: "Haven't you seen him? Strange what set you off


s: To come to his house when he's gone to yours.


s: You can't have passed each other. I know what:


s: He must have changed his mind and gone to Garlands.


s: He won't be long in that case. You can wait.


s: Though what good you can be, or anyone--


s: It's gone so far. You've heard? Estelle's run off."


s: "Yes, what's it all about? When did she go?"


s: "I'm sure she won't come back. She's hiding somewhere.


s: I don't know where myself. John thinks I do.


s: And she'll come back. But, bless you, I'm her mother--


s: I can't talk to her, and, Lord, if I could!"


s: "It will go hard with John. What will he do?


s: He can't find anyone to take her place."


s: "Oh, if you ask me that, what will he do?


s: He gets some sort of bakeshop meals together,


s: What's wanted and how much and where it is.


s: But when I'm gone--of course I can't stay here:


s: Estelle's to take me when she's settled down.


s: I tell them they can't get me through the door, though:


s: I've been built in here like a big church organ.


s: How do you see him living when you're gone?


s: Two of you out will leave an empty house."


s: "I don't just see him living many years,


s: Left here with nothing but the furniture.


s: I hate to think of the old place when we're gone,


s: If he could sell the place, but then, he can't:


s: It's too run down. This is the last of it.


s: What I think he will do, is let things smash.


s: He'll sort of swear the time away. He's awful!


s: Make so much difference in his man's affairs.


s: He's just dropped everything. He's like a child.


s: I blame his being brought up by his mother.


s: He's got hay down that's been rained on three times.


s: I thought the growing things would do him good.


s: Something went wrong. I saw him throw the hoe


s: Sky-high with both hands. I can see it now--


s: Come here--I'll show you--in that apple tree.


s: That's no way for a man to do at his age:


s: He's fifty-five, you know, if he's a day."


s: "Aren't you afraid of him? What's that gun for?"


s: "Oh, that's been there for hawks since chicken-time.


s: John Hall touch me! Not if he knows his friends.


s: I'll say that for him, John's no threatener


s: Like some men folk. No one's afraid of him;


s: All is, he's made up his mind not to stand


s: Couldn't one talk to her? What does she say?


s: She thinks if it was bad to live with him,


s: "The strain's been too much for her all these years:


s: It's different with a man, at least with John:


s: He knows he's kinder than the run of men.


s: As married--that's what he has always said.


s: I know the way he's felt--but all the same!"


s: He's given her time to think of something else.


s: That's his mistake. The dear knows my interest


s: Has been to keep the thing from breaking up.


s: This is a good home: I don't ask for better.


s: But when I've said, 'Why shouldn't they be married,'


s: He'd say, 'Why should they?' no more words than that."


s: "And after all why should they? John's been fair


s: I take it. What was his was always hers.


s: A friend or two as good as own the farm,


s: Such as it is. It isn't worth the mortgage."


s: "I mean Estelle has always held the purse."


s: "The rights of that are harder to get at.


s: I guess Estelle and I have filled the purse.


s: John's a bad farmer. I'm not blaming him.


s: Take it year in, year out, he doesn't make much.


s: We came here for a home for me, you know,


s: Estelle to do the housework for the board


s: Of both of us. But look how it turns out:


s: She seems to have the housework, and besides,


s: Half of the outdoor work, though as for that,


s: He'd say she does it more because she likes it.


s: You see our pretty things are all outdoors.


s: Our hens and cows and pigs are always better


s: Than folks like us have any business with.


s: Haven't as good. They don't go with the farm.


s: One thing you can't help liking about John,


s: He's fond of nice things--too fond, some would say.


s: But Estelle don't complain: she's like him there.


s: She wants our hens to be the best there are.


s: Full of lank, shivery, half-drowned birds


s: In separate coops, having their plumage done.


s: The smell of the wet feathers in the heat!


s: You spoke of John's not being safe to stay with.


s: You don't know what a gentle lot we are:


s: We wouldn't hurt a hen! You ought to see us


s: Moving a flock of hens from place to place.


s: We're not allowed to take them upside down,


s: Two at a time's the rule, one on each arm,


s: What childishness he wouldn't give way to.


s: On his own farm. He's boss. But as to hens:


s: We fence our flowers in and the hens range.


s: Nothing's too good for them. We say it pays.


s: John likes to tell the offers he has had,


s: Twenty for this cock, twenty-five for that.


s: He never takes the money. If they're worth


s: That much to sell, they're worth as much to keep.


s: Bless you, it's all expense, though. Reach me down


s: The little tin box on the cupboard shelf,


s: The upper shelf, the tin box. That's the one.


s: For fifty dollars for one Langshang cock--


s: Receipted. And the cock is in the yard."


s: He can eat off a barrel from the ground.


s: He's been in a glass case, as you may say,


s: The Crystal Palace, London. He's imported.


s: John bought him, and we paid the bill with beads--


s: Wampum, I call it. Mind, we don't complain.


s: But you see, don't you, we take care of him."


s: "And like it, too. It makes it all the worse."


s: "It seems as if. And that's not all: he's helpless


s: Sometimes he gets possessed to keep accounts


s: To see where all the money goes so fast.


s: But it's just fun the way he gets bedeviled--


s: If he's untidy now, what will he be----?


s: "It makes it all the worse. You must be blind."


s: "Estelle's the one. You needn't talk to me."


s: What's the real trouble? What will satisfy her?"


s: "It's as I say: she's turned from him, that's all."


s: "But why, when she's well off? Is it the neighbours,


s: That isn't it. Folks aren't afraid of us."


s: "She's let it worry her. You stood the strain,


s: John said I was too old to have grandchildren.


s: But what's the use of talking when it's done?


s: She won't come back--it's worse than that--she can't."


s: "Why do you speak like that? What do you know?


s: What do you mean?--she's done harm to herself?"


s: "I mean she's married--married someone else."


s: Only too well. I knew there must be something!


s: So that was what was back. She's bad, that's all!"


s: "Bad to get married when she had the chance?"


s: "Nonsense! See what's she done! But who, who----"


s: "Who'd marry her straight out of such a mess?


s: Say it right out--no matter for her mother.


s: The man was found. I'd better name no names.


s: "Then it's all up. I think I'll get away.


s: You'll be expecting John. I pity Estelle;


s: You ought to have the kitchen to yourself


s: To break it to him. You may have the job."


s: "You needn't think you're going to get away.


s: John's almost here. I've had my eye on someone


s: Coming down Ryan's Hill. I thought 'twas him.


s: "No, he won't, either. He'll just drop the reins


s: And turn Doll out to pasture, rig and all.


s: She won't get far before the wheels hang up


s: On something--there's no harm. See, there he is!


s: My, but he looks as if he must have heard!"


s: John threw the door wide but he didn't enter.


s: "How are you, neighbour? Just the man I'm after.


s: Isn't it Hell," he said. "I want to know.


s: Come out here if you want to hear me talk.


s: I've got some news that maybe isn't news.


s: What are they trying to do to me, these two?"


s: "Do go along with him and stop his shouting."


s: She raised her voice against the closing door:


s: "Who wants to hear your news, you--dreadful fool?"


s: And threw their lurching shadows on a house


s: Near by, all dark in every glossy window.


s: A horse's hoof pawed once the hollow floor,


s: And the back of the gig they stood beside


s: Moved in a little. The man grasped a wheel,


s: The woman spoke out sharply, "Whoa, stand still!"


s: "I saw it just as plain as a white plate,"


s: She said, "as the light on the dashboard ran


s: Along the bushes at the roadside--a man's face.


s: "Joel, I'll have to look. I can't go in,


s: I can't, and leave a thing like that unsettled.


s: Doors locked and curtains drawn will make no difference.


s: I always have felt strange when we came home


s: To the dark house after so long an absence,


s: Seemed to warn someone to be getting out


s: What if I'm right, and someone all the time--


s: "You speak as if this were a travelled road.


s: At such an hour of night, and on foot too.


s: What was he standing still for in the bushes?"


s: There's more in it than you're inclined to say.


s: She pushed past him and got it for herself.


s: "You're not to come," she said. "This is my business.


s: If the time's come to face it, I'm the one


s: To put it the right way. He'd never dare--


s: Listen! He kicked a stone. Hear that, hear that!


s: He's coming towards us. Joel, go in--please.


s: Hark!--I don't hear him now. But please go in."


s: "In the first place you can't make me believe it's----"


s: "It is--or someone else he's sent to watch.


s: And now's the time to have it out with him


s: Around us, looking out of trees and bushes


s: Till I sha'n't dare to set a foot outdoors.


s: "But it's nonsense to think he'd care enough."


s: "You mean you couldn't understand his caring.


s: We mustn't say hard things. You mustn't either."


s: But you give him the advantage with this light.


s: What couldn't he do to us standing here!


s: He has seen all there was to see and gone."


s: But advanced with her as she crossed the grass.


s: "What do you want?" she cried to all the dark.


s: She stretched up tall to overlook the light


s: That hung in both hands hot against her skirt.


s: "There's no one; so you're wrong," he said.


s: What do you want?" she cried, and then herself


s: Was startled when an answer really came.


s: "Nothing." It came from well along the road.


s: The smell of scorching woollen made her faint.


s: "What are you doing round this house at night?"


s: "Nothing." A pause: there seemed no more to say.


s: And then the voice again: "You seem afraid.


s: I saw by the way you whipped up the horse.


s: I'll just come forward in the lantern light


s: She stood her ground against the noisy steps


s: That came on, but her body rocked a little.


s: "You don't see--I've a child here by the hand."


s: "What's a child doing at this time of night----?"


s: "Out walking. Every child should have the memory


s: Of at least one long-after-bedtime walk.


s: We're stopping for the fortnight down at Dean's."


s: You won't think anything. You understand?


s: You understand that we have to be careful.


s: Joel!" She spoke as if she couldn't turn.


s: The swinging lantern lengthened to the ground,


s: It touched, it struck it, clattered and went out.


s: I'm going to sell my soul, or, rather, feet.


s: Five hundred dollars for the pair, you know."


s: "With you the feet have nearly been the soul;


s: And if you're going to sell them to the devil,


s: I want to see you do it. When's he coming?"


s: "I half suspect you knew, and came on purpose


s: To try to help me drive a better bargain."


s: "Well, if it's true! Yours are no common feet.


s: The lawyer don't know what it is he's buying:


s: So many miles you might have walked you won't walk.


s: You haven't run your forty orchids down.


s: What does he think?--How are the blessed feet?


s: The doctor's sure you're going to walk again?"


s: "He thinks I'll hobble. It's both legs and feet."


s: "They must be terrible--I mean to look at."


s: "I haven't dared to look at them uncovered.


s: Through the bed blankets I remind myself


s: Of a starfish laid out with rigid points."


s: "The wonder is it hadn't been your head."


s: "It's hard to tell you how I managed it.


s: When I saw the shaft had me by the coat,


s: I just embraced the shaft and rode it out--


s: Till Weiss shut off the water in the wheel-pit.


s: That's how I think I didn't lose my head.


s: But my legs got their knocks against the ceiling."


s: "Awful. Why didn't they throw off the belt


s: Instead of going clear down in the wheel-pit?"


s: "They say some time was wasted on the belt--


s: Old streak of leather--doesn't love me much


s: Because I make him spit fire at my knuckles,


s: The way Ben Franklin used to make the kite-string.


s: That must be it. Some days he won't stay on.


s: He's on his rounds now with his tail in his mouth


s: Snatched right and left across the silver pulleys.


s: Everything goes the same without me there.


s: You can hear the small buzz saws whine, the big saw


s: Caterwaul to the hills around the village


s: As they both bite the wood. It's all our music.


s: One ought as a good villager to like it.


s: No doubt it has a sort of prosperous sound,


s: With everything. What we live by we die by.


s: I wonder where my lawyer is. His train's in.


s: I want this over with; I'm hot and tired."


s: "You're getting ready to do something foolish."


s: "Watch for him, will you, Will? You let him in.


s: I've boarded here so long, she thinks she owns me.


s: You're bad enough to manage without her."


s: "And I'm going to be worse instead of better.


s: You've got to tell me how far this is gone:


s: Five hundred--five--five! One, two, three, four, five.


s: "I told you, Willis, when you first came in.


s: What I can get. You see they have the feet,


s: Which gives them the advantage in the trade.


s: "But your flowers, man, you're selling out your flowers."


s: "Yes, that's one way to put it--all the flowers


s: For the next forty summers--call it forty.


s: But I'm not selling those, I'm giving them,


s: They never earned me so much as one cent:


s: Money can't pay me for the loss of them.


s: No, the five hundred was the sum they named


s: To pay the doctor's bill and tide me over.


s: It's that or fight, and I don't want to fight--


s: Such as it's going to be, and know the worst,


s: Promise me all the shooks I want to nail."


s: "But what about your flora of the valley?"


s: "You have me there. But that--you didn't think


s: For the friends it might bring me. By the way,


s: I had a letter from Burroughs--did I tell you?--


s: There! there's the bell. He's rung. But you go down


s: And bring him up, and don't let Mrs. Corbin.--


s: Oh, well, we'll soon be through with it. I'm tired."


s: Willis brought up besides the Boston lawyer


s: Of heavy footsteps in the old frame house,


s: Stood for a while unnoticed with her hands


s: As if for papers that might bear the name


s: He hadn't at command. "You must excuse me,


s: I dropped in at the mill and was detained."


s: "Looking round, I suppose," said Willis.


s: "Hear anything that might prove useful?"


s: The Broken One saw Anne. "Why, here is Anne.


s: What do you want, dear? Come, stand by the bed;


s: Tell me what is it?" Anne just wagged her dress


s: With both hands held behind her. "Guess," she said.


s: "Oh, guess which hand? My my! Once on a time


s: By looking in the ears. But I forget it.


s: Er, let me see. I think I'll take the right.


s: That's sure to be right even if it's wrong.


s: Come, hold it out. Don't change.--A Ram's Horn orchid!


s: A Ram's Horn! What would I have got, I wonder,


s: If I had chosen left. Hold out the left.


s: Another Ram's Horn! Where did you find those,


s: Under what beech tree, on what woodchuck's knoll?"


s: Anne looked at the large lawyer at her side,


s: And thought she wouldn't venture on so much.


s: I knew you wouldn't let me pick them all."


s: "I wouldn't--so I wouldn't. You're the girl!


s: You see Anne has her lesson learned by heart."


s: "I wanted there should be some there next year."


s: "Of course you did. You left the rest for seed,


s: And for the backwoods woodchuck. You're the girl!


s: A Ram's Horn orchid seedpod for a woodchuck


s: Sounds something like. Better than farmer's beans


s: Though the Ram's Horn is seldom to be had


s: In bushel lots--doesn't come on the market.


s: But, Anne, I'm troubled; have you told me all?


s: You're hiding something. That's as bad as lying.


s: You ask this lawyer man. And it's not safe


s: Nothing is hidden from some people, Anne.


s: You don't tell me that where you found a Ram's Horn


s: You didn't find a Yellow Lady's Slipper.


s: What did I tell you? What? I'd blush, I would.


s: Don't you defend yourself. If it was there,


s: Where is it now, the Yellow Lady's Slipper?"


s: "Well, wait--it's common--it's too common."


s: To You--to you I mean--they're both too common."


s: The lawyer gave a laugh among his papers


s: As if with some idea that she had scored.


s: "I've broken Anne of gathering bouquets.


s: It's not fair to the child. It can't be helped though:


s: Pressed into service means pressed out of shape.


s: Somehow I'll make it right with her--she'll see.


s: She's going to do my scouting in the field,


s: The floating Heart, with small leaf like a heart,


s: Of little fingers all kept down but one,


s: And that thrust up to blossom in the sun


s: As if to say, 'You! You're the Heart's desire.'


s: Anne has a way with flowers to take the place


s: Of that she's lost: she goes down on one knee


s: And lifts their faces by the chin to hers


s: And says their names, and leaves them where they are."


s: The lawyer wore a watch the case of which


s: Like a small pistol when he snapped it shut


s: At such a time as this. He snapped it now.


s: "Well, Anne, go, dearie. Our affair will wait.


s: The lawyer man is thinking of his train.


s: He wants to give me lots and lots of money


s: And it may take him I don't know how long.


s: But put our flowers in water first. Will, help her:


s: The pitcher's too full for her. There's no cup?


s: Just hook them on the inside of the pitcher.


s: Now run.--Get out your documents! You see


s: I have to keep on the good side of Anne.


s: And you can't blame me in the place I'm in.


s: The lawyer said. "I'm sorry, but my train--


s: You only have to sign your name. Right--there."


s: "You, Will, stop making faces. Come round here


s: Where you can't make them. What is it you want?


s: I'll put you out with Anne. Be good or go."


s: "You don't mean you will sign that thing unread?"


s: "Make yourself useful then, and read it for me.


s: "You'll find it is. Let your friend look at it."


s: "Yes, but all that takes time, and I'm as much


s: But read it, read it. That's right, draw the curtain:


s: Half the time I don't know what's troubling me.--


s: What do you say, Will? Don't you be a fool,


s: Out with it if you've any real objection."


s: "A thousand wouldn't be a cent too much;


s: It smells to me like a dishonest trick."


s: "I think--I think--from what I heard to-day--


s: And saw myself--he would be ill-advised----"


s: "What did you hear, for instance?" Willis said.


s: "Now the place where the accident occurred----"


s: You stand up to it like a pair of cocks.


s: Go outdoors if you want to fight. Spare me.


s: When you come back, I'll have the papers signed.


s: Will pencil do? Then, please, your fountain pen.


s: One of you hold my head up from the pillow."


s: Willis flung off the bed. "I wash my hands--


s: I'm no match--no, and don't pretend to be----"


s: The lawyer gravely capped his fountain pen.


s: "You're doing the wise thing: you won't regret it.


s: "Who's we?--some stockholders in Boston?


s: I'll go outdoors, by gad, and won't come back."


s: "Willis, bring Anne back with you when you come.


s: Yes. Thanks for caring. Don't mind Will: he's savage.


s: He thinks you ought to pay me for my flowers.


s: You don't know what I mean about the flowers.


s: Don't stop to try to now. You'll miss your train.


s: Good-bye." He flung his arms around his face.


s: OUT walking in the frozen swamp one grey day


s: I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.


s: No, I will go on farther--and we shall see."


s: The hard snow held me, save where now and then


s: One foot went down. The view was all in lines


s: Too much alike to mark or name a place by


s: Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.


s: A small bird flew before me. He was careful


s: To put a tree between us when he lighted,


s: Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.


s: He thought that I was after him for a feather--


s: The white one in his tail; like one who takes


s: One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.


s: And then there was a pile of wood for which


s: Carry him off the way I might have gone,


s: Without so much as wishing him good-night.


s: He went behind it to make his last stand.


s: And piled--and measured, four by four by eight.


s: No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it.


s: And it was older sure than this year's cutting,


s: Or even last year's or the year's before.


s: The wood was grey and the bark warping off it


s: Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.


s: What held it though on one side was a tree


s: Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,


s: These latter about to fall. I thought that only


s: Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks


s: He spent himself, the labour of his axe,


s: And leave it there far from a useful fireplace


s: To warm the frozen swamp as best it could


s: With the slow smokeless burning of decay.


s: I went till there were no cottages found.


s: Invitation to a young but learned friend . . .


s: High and solemn mountains guard Riouperoux,


s: - Small untidy village where the river drives a mill:


s: Frail as wood anemones, white and frail were you,


s: And drooping a little, like the slender daffodil.


s: Oh I will go to France again, and tramp the valley through,


s: And I will change these gentle clothes for clog and corduroy,


s: And work with the mill-hands of black Riouperoux,


s: And walk with you, and talk with you, like any other boy.


s: The Town without a Market, white and still;


s: For six feet long and not a third as high


s: Are those small habitations.  There stood I,


s: Murmur and sigh and speak through tongueless teeth.


s: When all the world lay burning in the sun


s: I heard their voices speak to me.  Said one:


s: "Bright lights I loved and colours, I who find


s: That death is darkness, and has struck me blind."


s: Another cried:  "I used to sing and play,


s: But here the world is silent, day by day."


s: And one:  "On earth I could not see or hear,


s: But with my fingers touched what I was near,


s: And knew things round and soft, and brass from gold,


s: And dipped my hand in water, to feel cold,


s: And thought the grave would cure me, and was glad


s: When the time came to lose what joy I had."


s: Shouted in wrath together.  Someone said,


s: "I care not, but the girl was sweet to kiss


s: At evening in the meadows."  "Hard it is"


s: Another cried, "to hear no hunting horn.


s: Ah me! the horse, the hounds, and the great grey morn


s: When I rode out a-hunting."  And one sighed,


s: A boy said, "I was strong and swift to run:


s: Now they have tied my feet:  what have I done?"


s: A man, "But it was good to arm and fight


s: And storm their cities in the dead of night."


s: An old man said, "I read my books all day,


s: And one, "The popes and prophets did not well


s: To cheat poor dead men with false hopes of hell.


s: Better the whips of fire that hiss and rend


s: Than painless void proceeding to no end."


s: I smiled to hear them restless, I who sought


s: Peace.  For I had not loved, I had not fought,


s: And books are vanities, and manly strength


s: A gathered flower.  God grant us peace at length!


s: I heard no more, and turned to leave their town


s: Before the chill came, and the sun went down.


s: Then rose a whisper, and I seemed to know


s: "On Earth I used to shape the Thing that seems.


s: Master of all men, give me back my dreams.


s: Give me that world that never failed me then,


s: The hills I made and peopled with tall men,


s: The palace that I built and called my home,


s: My cities which could break the pride of Rome,


s: The three queens hidden in the sacred tree,


s: And those white cloudy folk who sang to me.


s: O death, why hast thou covered me so deep?


s: I was thy sister's child, the friend of Sleep."


s: Then said my heart, Death takes and cannot give.


s: Dark with no dream is hateful:  let me live!


s: Knowest thou the land where bloom the lemon trees,


s: A gentle wind blows down from that blue sky;


s: Calm stands the myrtle and the laurel high.


s: Knowest thou the land?  So far and fair!


s: Thou, whom I love, and I will wander there.


s: Knowest thou the house with all its rooms aglow,


s: The marble statues stand and look at me.


s: Alas, poor child, what have they done to thee?


s: Knowest thou the land?  So far and fair.


s: My Guardian, thou and I will wander there.


s: Knowest thou the mountain with its bridge of cloud?


s: The mule plods warily:  the white mists crowd.


s: Coiled in their caves the brood of dragons sleep;


s: The torrent hurls the rock from steep to steep.


s: I shall walk with the stars in their courses,


s: In those good days when we were young and wise,


s: You spake to music, you with the thoughtful eyes,


s: And God looked down from heaven, pleased to hear


s: A young man's song arise so firm and clear.


s: Has Fancy died?  The Morning Star gone cold?


s: Why are you silent?  Have we grown so old?


s: Must I alone keep playing?  Will not you,


s: Lord of the Measures, string your lyre anew?


s: Lover of Greece, is this the richest store


s: You bring us,--withered leaves and dusty lore,


s: To brand you pedant while you stand divine?


s: In English glades they watch the Cyprian glow,


s: They hear strange voices in a London street,


s: And track the silver gleam of rushing feet;


s: And these are things that come not to the view


s: Of slippered dons who read a codex through.


s: The moonlit garden and the midnight shore?


s: The story of that weak and cautious king


s: Who reigned two hundred years in Trebizond?


s: You who would ever strive to pierce beyond


s: Love's ecstacy, Life's vision, is it well


s: We should not know the tales you have to tell?


s: That dance spasmodic they are dancing there,


s: Whilst drone and cry and drone of violins


s: Hint at the sweetness of forgotten sins,


s: Or call the devotees of shame to prayer.


s: There some most lonely are:  some try to crown


s: Mad lovers with sad boughs of formal yews,


s: Now the sweet Dawn on brighter fields afar


s: Has walked among the daisies, and has breathed


s: The glory of the mountain winds, and sheathed


s: The stubborn sword of Night's last-shining star.


s: In Bathrolaire when Day's old doors unbar


s: The motley mask, fantastically wreathed,


s: Pass through a strong portcullis brazen teethed,


s: Stupendous prisons shut them out from day,


s: Gratings and caves and rayless catacombs,


s: Grind death in cells where jetting gaslight gloams,


s: Dive to the depths of those eternal domes.


s: Round whom the Seraphs fold their wings.


s: O grandest of the Angels, and most wise,


s: O fallen God, fate-driven from the skies,


s: Yet growest, in thy hatred, still more strong,


s: To lepers and to outcasts thou dost show


s: Thou by thy mistress Death hast given to man


s: Thou givest to the Guilty their calm mien


s: Which damns the crowd around the guillotine.


s: Thou knowest the corners of the jealous Earth


s: Where sleep the buried people of the mines.


s: Thou stretchest forth a saving hand to keep


s: Such men as roam upon the roofs in sleep.


s: Thy power can make the halting Drunkard's feet


s: Thou, to console our helplessness, didst plot


s: On the unrelenting foreheads of the rich.


s: In strange and hidden places thou dost move


s: Where women cry for torture in their love.


s: Father of those whom God's tempestuous ire


s: Has flung from Paradise with sword and fire,


s: Satan, to thee be praise upon the Height


s: Where thou wast king of old, and in the night


s: Of Hell, where thou dost dream on silently.


s: Grant that one day beneath the Knowledge-tree,


s: When it shoots forth to grace thy royal brow,


s: My soul may sit, that cries upon thee now.


s: That made their clothes and faces bright.


s: "But who art thou, with curious beauty graced,


s: O woman, stamped with some bright heavenly seal


s: Why go thy feet on wings, and in such haste?"


s: "I am that maid whose secret few may steal,


s: Because my feet are treading on a wheel,


s: Being more swift to run than birds to fly.


s: To blind the sight of those who track and spy;


s: Rightly in front I hold my scattered hair


s: To veil my face, and down my breast to fall,


s: Lest men should know my name when I am there;


s: For eager folk to clutch, what time I glide


s: So near, and turn, and pass beyond recall."


s: "Tell me; who is that Figure at thy side?"


s: "Penitence.  Mark this well that by decree


s: Who lets me go must keep her for his bride.


s: And thou hast spent much time in talk with me


s: Busied with thoughts and fancies vainly grand,


s: Nor hast remarked, O fool, neither dost see


s: How lightly I have fled beneath thy hand."


s: An hour there is when bright words flow,


s: We storm at your ivory gate:  Pale Kings of the Sunset, beware!


s: Not on silk nor in samet we lie, not in curtained solemnity die


s: A mart of destruction we made at Jalula where men were afraid,


s: Do you hear, in the dark and starlit blue


s: The sky is bright with a star's great light,


s: When it shall be, and whether in great pain


s: I shall rise up and fight the air for breath


s: Or calmly wait the bursting of my brain.


s: A folklore solace or sweet Indian tales:


s: I know dead men are deaf and cannot hear


s: I know dead men are blind and cannot see


s: The friend that shuts in horror their big eyes,


s: And read their long black printed dreams.


s: And then to hope the shades would smile.


s: When you have wearied of the valiant spires of this County Town,


s: Half town and half country--the land of the Canal.


s: Straightest, sublimest of rivers is the long Canal.


s: For the water is as deep as the stars are high.


s: One day I was thinking how if a man fell from that lofty pole


s: The untidy landscape rose to life:  a sawmill started;


s: Men and not phantoms are these that move in light.


s: Night on the bloodstained snow:  the wind is chill:


s: And there a thousand tombless warriors lie,


s: Grasping their swords, wild-featured.  All are still.


s: Above them the black ravens wheel and cry.


s: A brilliant moon sends her cold light abroad:


s: And bleeding from his side the battle-rain.


s: "Hail to you all:  is there one breath still drawn