Up to our flanks in the gulch, and Rattlesnake Creek jest a-bilin' Chiquita ; And after us trundled the rocks jest loosed from the top of the cañon. 5 Lickity, lickity, switch, we came to the ford, and Chiquita Buckled right down to her work, and, afore I could yell to her rider, Took water jest at the ford, and there was the Jedge and me standing, And twelve hundred dollars of hoss-flesh afloat, and a-driftin' to thunder! Would ye b'lieve it? That night, that hoss, that 'ar filly, Chiquita, Walked herself into her stall, and stood there, all quiet and dripping: ΙΟ Clean as a beaver or rat, with nary a buckle of harness, That's what I call a hoss! and - What did you say? — Oh, the 15 And then, ye know, boys will be boys, and hosses — well, hosses "How fares my boy, my soldier boy, In the smoke and the battle's roar!" "I know him not," said the aged man, I was with Grant”. -"Nay, nay, I know," 5 10 "He fell in battle, - I see, alas! Thou'dst smooth these tidings o'er, Nay, speak the truth, whatever it be, Though it rend my bosom's core. "How fell he, with his face to the foe, 15 20 Then the farmer spake him never a word, 25 EDWARD ROWLAND SILL 1841-1887 A GRADUATE of Yale, a professor of English literature at the University of California, a man of unusual poetic gifts, Sill died when he seemed on the threshold of a more than ordinary literary career. He left behind a volume of essays and several volumes of verse. The Venus of Milo is his longest and best-known poem. He was born at Windsor, Connecticut, and died at Cleveland, Ohio. THE FOOL'S PRAYER THE royal feast was done; the King Kneel now, The jester doffed his cap and bells, And stood the mocking court before; Behind the painted grin he wore. He bowed his head, and bent his knee "No pity, Lord, could change the heart ""Tis not by guilt the onward sweep 'Tis by our follies that so long We hold the earth from heaven away. "These clumsy feet, still in the mire, “The ill-timed truth we might have kept — Who knows how grandly it had rung! "Our faults no tenderness should ask, The chastening stripes must cleanse them all; But for our blunders — Oh, in shame Before the eyes of heaven we fall. "Earth bears no balsam for mistakes; Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will; but Thou, O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!" The room was hushed; in silence rose THE FUTURE WHAT may we take into the vast Forever? Admits no fruit of all our long endeavor, What can we bear beyond the unknown portal? No gold, no gains Of all our toiling in the life immortal No hoarded wealth remains, Nor gilds, nor stains. Naked from out that far abyss behind us No word came with our coming to remind us No hope, no fear. Into the silent, starless Night before us, Naked we glide; No hand has mapped the constellations o'er us, No comrade at our side, No chart, no guide. Yet fearless toward that midnight, black and hollow, The beckoning of a Father's hand we follow His love alone is there, No curse, no care. EVE'S DAUGHTER I WAITED in the little sunny room: The cool breeze waved the window-lace at play, The white rose on the porch was all in bloom, And out upon the bay I watched the wheeling sea birds go and come. "Such an old friend, - she would not make me stay While she bound up her hair." I turned, and lo, Danaë in her shower! and fit to slay All a man's hoarded prudence at a blow: Gold hair, that streamed away As round some nymph a sunlit fountain's flow. "She would not make me wait"- but well I know She took a good half hour to loose and lay Those locks in dazzling disarrangement so! 5 10 15 20 25 |