Chapter 5

Chapter 54,380 wordsPublic domain

I swing to the "Land to Be," I am the power that laid its floors, I am the guide to its western stores, I am the key to its golden doors, That open alone to me.

C.P.R. "NO. 2," EASTBOUND

I swing to the land of morn; The grey old east with its grey old seas, The land of leisure, the land of ease, The land of flowers and fruits and trees, And the place where we were born.

Freighted with wealth I come; For he who many a moon has spent Far out west on adventure bent, With well-worn pick and a folded tent, Is bringing his bullion home.

I never will be renowned, As my twin that swings to the western marts, For I am she of the humbler parts, But I am the joy of the waiting hearts; For I am the Homeward-bound.

GOLDEN--OF THE SELKIRKS

A trail upwinds from Golden; It leads to a land God only knows, To the land of eternal frozen snows, That trail unknown and olden.

And they tell a tale that is strange and wild-- Of a lovely and lonely mountain child That went up the trail from Golden.

A child in the sweet of her womanhood, Beautiful, tender, grave and good As the saints in time long olden.

And the days count not, nor the weeks avail; For the child that went up the mountain trail Came never again to Golden.

And the watchers wept in the midnight gloom, Where the canyons yawn and the Selkirks loom, For the love that they knew of olden.

And April dawned, with its suns aflame, And the eagles wheeled and the vultures came And poised o'er the town of Golden.

God of the white eternal peaks, Guard the dead while the vulture seeks!-- God of the days so olden.

For only God in His greatness knows Where the mountain holly above her grows, On the trail that leads from Golden.

THE SONGSTER

Music, music with throb and swing, Of a plaintive note, and long; 'Tis a note no human throat could sing, No harp with its dulcet golden string,-- Nor lute, nor lyre with liquid ring, Is sweet as the robin's song.

He sings for love of the season When the days grow warm and long, For the beautiful God-sent reason That his breast was born for song.

Calling, calling so fresh and clear, Through the song-sweet days of May; Warbling there, and whistling here, He swells his voice on the drinking ear, On the great, wide, pulsing atmosphere Till his music drowns the day.

He sings for love of the season When the days grow warm and long, For the beautiful God-sent reason That his breast was born for song.

THISTLE-DOWN

Beyond a ridge of pine with russet tips The west lifts to the sun her longing lips,

Her blushes stain with gold and garnet dye The shore, the river and the wide far sky;

Like floods of wine the waters filter through The reeds that brush our indolent canoe.

I beach the bow where sands in shadows lie; You hold my hand a space, then speak good-bye.

Upwinds your pathway through the yellow plumes Of goldenrod, profuse in August blooms,

And o'er its tossing sprays you toss a kiss; A moment more, and I see only this--

The idle paddle you so lately held, The empty bow your pliant wrist propelled,

Some thistles purpling into violet, Their blossoms with a thousand thorns afret,

And like a cobweb, shadowy and grey, Far floats their down--far drifts my dream away.

THE RIDERS OF THE PLAINS [2]

Who is it lacks the knowledge? Who are the curs that dare To whine and sneer that they do not fear the whelps in the Lion's lair? But we of the North will answer, while life in the North remains, Let the curs beware lest the whelps they dare are the Riders of the Plains; For these are the kind whose muscle makes the power of the Lion's jaw, And they keep the peace of our people and the honour of British law.

A woman has painted a picture,--'tis a neat little bit of art The critics aver, and it roused up for her the love of the big British heart. 'Tis a sketch of an English bulldog that tigers would scarce attack, And round and about and beneath him is painted the Union Jack. With its blaze of colour, and courage, its daring in every fold, And underneath is the title, "What we have we'll hold." 'Tis a picture plain as a mirror, but the reflex it contains Is the counterpart of the life and heart of the Riders of the Plains; For like to that flag and that motto, and the power of that bulldog's jaw, They keep the peace of our people and the honour of British law.

These are the fearless fighters, whose life in the open lies, Who never fail on the prairie trail 'neath the Territorial skies, Who have laughed in the face of the bullets and the edge of the rebels' steel, Who have set their ban on the lawless man with his crime beneath their heel; These are the men who battle the blizzards, the suns, the rains, These are the famed that the North has named the "Riders of the Plains," And theirs is the might and the meaning and the strength of the bulldog's jaw, While they keep the peace of the people and the honour of British law.

These are the men of action, who need not the world's renown, For their valour is known to England's throne as a gem in the British crown; These are the men who face the front, whose courage the world may scan, The men who are feared by the felon, but are loved by the honest man; These are the marrow, the pith, the cream, the best that the blood contains, Who have cast their days in the valiant ways of the Riders of the Plains; And theirs is the kind whose muscle makes the power of old England's jaw, And they keep the peace of her people and the honour of British law.

Then down with the cur that questions,--let him slink to his craven den,-- For he daren't deny our hot reply as to "who are our mounted men." He shall honour them east and westward, he shall honour them south and north, He shall bare his head to that coat of red wherever that red rides forth. 'Tis well that he knows the fibre that the great North-West contains, The North-West pride in her men that ride on the Territorial plains,-- For of such as these are the muscles and the teeth in the Lion's jaw, And they keep the peace of our people and the honour of British law.

[2] The above is the Territorial pet name for the North-West Mounted Police, and is in general usage throughout Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. At a dinner party in Boston the writer was asked, "Who are the North-West Mounted Police?" and when told that they were the pride of Canada's fighting men the questioner sneered and replied, "Ah! then they are only some of British Lion's whelps. We are not afraid of them." His companions applauded the remark.

SILHOUETTE

The sky-line melts from russet into blue, Unbroken the horizon, saving where A wreath of smoke curls up the far, thin air, And points the distant lodges of the Sioux.

Etched where the lands and cloudlands touch and die A solitary Indian tepee stands, The only habitation of these lands, That roll their magnitude from sky to sky.

The tent poles lift and loom in thin relief, The upward floating smoke ascends between, And near the open doorway, gaunt and lean, And shadow-like, there stands an Indian Chief.

With eyes that lost their lustre long ago, With visage fixed and stern as fate's decree, He looks towards the empty west, to see The never-coming herd of buffalo.

Only the bones that bleach upon the plains, Only the fleshless skeletons that lie In ghastly nakedness and silence, cry Out mutely that naught else to him remains.

A PRODIGAL

My heart forgot its God for love of you, And you forgot me, other loves to learn; Now through a wilderness of thorn and rue Back to my God I turn.

And just because my God forgets the past, And in forgetting does not ask to know Why I once left His arms for yours, at last Back to my God I go.

"THROUGH TIME AND BITTER DISTANCE" [3]

Unknown to you, I walk the cheerless shore. The cutting blast, the hurl of biting brine May freeze, and still, and bind the waves at war, Ere you will ever know, O! Heart of mine, That I have sought, reflected in the blue Of these sea depths, some shadow of your eyes; Have hoped the laughing waves would sing of you, But this is all my starving sight descries--

Far out at sea a sail Bends to the freshening breeze, Yields to the rising gale That sweeps the seas;

Yields, as a bird wind-tossed, To saltish waves that fling Their spray, whose rime and frost Like crystals cling

III

To canvas, mast and spar, Till, gleaming like a gem, She sinks beyond the far Horizon's hem.

Lost to my longing sight, And nothing left to me Save an oncoming night,-- An empty sea.

[3] For this title the author is indebted to Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts. It occurs in his sonnet, "Rain."

AT HALF-MAST

You didn't know Billy, did you? Well, Bill was one of the boys, The greatest fellow you ever seen to racket an' raise a noise,-- An' sing! say, you never heard singing 'nless you heard Billy sing. I used to say to him, "Billy, that voice that you've got there'd bring A mighty sight more bank-notes to tuck away in your vest, If only you'd go on the concert stage instead of a-ranchin' West." An' Billy he'd jist go laughin', and say as I didn't know A robin's whistle in springtime from a barnyard rooster's crow. But Billy could sing, an' I sometimes think that voice lives anyhow,-- That perhaps Bill helps with the music in the place he's gone to now.

The last time that I seen him was the day he rode away; He was goin' acrost the plain to catch the train for the East next day. 'Twas the only time I ever seen poor Bill that he didn't laugh Or sing, an' kick up a rumpus an' racket around, and chaff, For he'd got a letter from his folks that said for to hurry home, For his mother was dyin' away down East an' she wanted Bill to come. Say, but the feller took it hard, but he saddled up right away, An' started across the plains to take the train for the East, next day. Sometimes I lie awake a-nights jist a-thinkin' of the rest, For that was the great big blizzard day, when the wind come down from west, An' the snow piled up like mountains an' we couldn't put foot outside, But jist set into the shack an' talked of Bill on his lonely ride. We talked of the laugh he threw us as he went at the break o' day, An' we talked of the poor old woman dyin' a thousand mile away.

Well, Dan O'Connell an' I went out to search at the end of the week, Fer all of us fellers thought a lot,--a lot that we darsn't speak. We'd been up the trail about forty mile, an' was talkin' of turnin' back, But Dan, well, he wouldn't give in, so we kep' right on to the railroad track. As soon as we sighted them telegraph wires says Dan, "Say, bless my soul! Ain't that there Bill's red handkerchief tied half way up that pole?" Yes, sir, there she was, with her ends a-flippin' an' flyin' in the wind, An' underneath was the envelope of Bill's letter tightly pinned. "Why, he must a-boarded the train right here," says Dan, but I kinder knew That underneath them snowdrifts we would find a thing or two; Fer he'd writ on that there paper, "Been lost fer hours,--all hope is past. You'll find me, boys, where my handkerchief is flyin' at half-mast."

THE SLEEPING GIANT

(THUNDER BAY, LAKE SUPERIOR)

When did you sink to your dreamless sleep Out there in your thunder bed? Where the tempests sweep, And the waters leap, And the storms rage overhead.

Were you lying there on your couch alone Ere Egypt and Rome were born? Ere the Age of Stone, Or the world had known The Man with the Crown of Thorn.

The winds screech down from the open west, And the thunders beat and break On the amethyst Of your rugged breast,-- But you never arise or wake.

You have locked your past, and you keep the key In your heart 'neath the westing sun, Where the mighty sea And its shores will be Storm-swept till the world is done.

THE QUILL WORKER

Plains, plains, and the prairie land which the sunlight floods and fills, To the north the open country, southward the Cyprus Hills; Never a bit of woodland, never a rill that flows, Only a stretch of cactus beds, and the wild, sweet prairie rose; Never a habitation, save where in the far south-west A solitary tepee lifts its solitary crest, Where Neykia in the doorway, crouched in the red sunshine, Broiders her buckskin mantle with the quills of the porcupine.

Neykia, the Sioux chief's daughter, she with the foot that flies, She with the hair of midnight and the wondrous midnight eyes, She with the deft brown fingers, she with the soft, slow smile, She with the voice of velvet and the thoughts that dream the while,-- "Whence come the vague to-morrows? Where do the yesters fly? What is beyond the border of the prairie and the sky? Does the maid in the Land of Morning sit in the red sunshine, Broidering her buckskin mantle with the quills of the porcupine?"

So Neykia, in the westland, wonders and works away, Far from the fret and folly of the "Land of Waking Day." And many the pale-faced trader who stops at the tepee door For a smile from the sweet, shy worker, and a sigh when the hour is o'er. For they know of a young red hunter who oftentimes has stayed To rest and smoke with her father, tho' his eyes were on the maid; And the moons will not be many ere she in the red sunshine Will broider his buckskin mantle with the quills of the porcupine.

GUARD OF THE EASTERN GATE

Halifax sits on her hills by the sea In the might of her pride,-- Invincible, terrible, beautiful, she With a sword at her side.

To right and to left of her, battlements rear And fortresses frown; While she sits on her throne without favour or fear With her cannon as crown.

Coast guard and sentinel, watch of the weal Of a nation she keeps; But her hand is encased in a gauntlet of steel, And her thunder but sleeps.

AT CROW'S NEST PASS

At Crow's Nest Pass the mountains rend Themselves apart, the rivers wend A lawless course about their feet, And breaking into torrents beat In useless fury where they blend At Crow's Nest Pass.

The nesting eagle, wise, discreet, Wings up the gorge's lone retreat And makes some barren crag her friend At Crow's Nest Pass.

Uncertain clouds, half-high, suspend Their shifting vapours, and contend With rocks that suffer not defeat; And snows, and suns, and mad winds meet To battle where the cliffs defend At Crow's Nest Pass.

"GIVE US BARABBAS" [4]

There was a man--a Jew of kingly blood, But of the people--poor and lowly born, Accused of blasphemy of God, He stood Before the Roman Pilate, while in scorn The multitude demanded it was fit That one should suffer for the people, while Another be released, absolved, acquit, To live his life out virtuous or vile.

"Whom will ye have--Barabbas or this Jew?" Pilate made answer to the mob, "The choice Is yours; I wash my hands of this, and you, Do as you will." With one vast ribald voice The populace arose and, shrieking, cried, "Give us Barabbas, we condone his deeds!" And He of Nazareth was crucified-- Misjudged, condemned, dishonoured for their needs.

And down these nineteen centuries anew Comes the hoarse-throated, brutalized refrain, "Give us Barabbas, crucify the Jew!" Once more a man must bear a nation's stain,-- And that in France, the chivalrous, whose lore Made her the flower of knightly age gone by. Now she lies hideous with a leprous sore No skill can cure--no pardon purify.

And an indignant world, transfixed with hate Of such disease, cries, as in Herod's time, Pointing its finger at her festering state, "Room for the leper, and her leprous crime!" And France, writhing from years of torment, cries Out in her anguish, "Let this Jew endure, Damned and disgraced, vicarious sacrifice. The honour of my army is secure."

And, vampire-like, that army sucks the blood From out a martyr's veins, and strips his crown Of honour from him, and his herohood Flings in the dust, and cuts his manhood down. Hide from your God, O! ye that did this act! With lesser crimes the halls of Hell are paved. Your army's honour may be still intact, Unstained, unsoiled, unspotted,--but unsaved.

[4] Written after Dreyfus was exiled.

YOUR MIRROR FRAME

Methinks I see your mirror frame, Ornate with photographs of them. Place mine therein, for, all the same, I'll have my little laughs at them.

For girls may come, and girls may go, I think I have the best of them; And yet this photograph I know You'll toss among the rest of them.

I cannot even hope that you Will put me in your locket, dear; Nor costly frame will I look through, Nor bide in your breast pocket, dear.

For none your heart monopolize, You favour such a nest of them. So I but hope your roving eyes Seek mine among the rest of them.

For saucy sprite, and noble dame, And many a dainty maid of them Will greet me in your mirror frame, And share your kisses laid on them.

And yet, sometimes I fancy, dear, You hold me as the best of them. So I'm content if I appear To-night with all the rest of them.

THE CITY AND THE SEA

To none the city bends a servile knee; Purse-proud and scornful, on her heights she stands, And at her feet the great white moaning sea Shoulders incessantly the grey-gold sands,-- One the Almighty's child since time began, And one the might of Mammon, born of clods; For all the city is the work of man, But all the sea is God's.

And she--between the ocean and the town-- Lies cursed of one and by the other blest: Her staring eyes, her long drenched hair, her gown, Sea-laved and soiled and dank above her breast. She, image of her God since life began, She, but the child of Mammon, born of clods, Her broken body spoiled and spurned of man, But her sweet soul is God's.

FIRE-FLOWERS

And only where the forest fires have sped, Scorching relentlessly the cool north lands, A sweet wild flower lifts its purple head, And, like some gentle spirit sorrow-fed, It hides the scars with almost human hands.

And only to the heart that knows of grief, Of desolating fire, of human pain, There comes some purifying sweet belief, Some fellow-feeling beautiful, if brief. And life revives, and blossoms once again.

A TOAST

There's wine in the cup, Vancouver, And there's warmth in my heart for you, While I drink to your health, your youth, and your wealth, And the things that you yet will do. In a vintage rare and olden, With a flavour fine and keen, Fill the glass to the edge, while I stand up to pledge My faith to my western queen.

Then here's a Ho! Vancouver, in wine of the bonniest hue, With a hand on my hip and the cup at my lip, And a love in my life for you. For you are a jolly good fellow, with a great, big heart, I know; So I drink this toast To the "Queen of the Coast." Vancouver, here's a Ho!

And here's to the days that are coming, And here's to the days that are gone, And here's to your gold and your spirit bold, And your luck that has held its own; And here's to your hands so sturdy, And here's to your hearts so true, And here's to the speed of the day decreed That brings me again to you.

LADY ICICLE

Little Lady Icicle is dreaming in the north-land And gleaming in the north-land, her pillow all a-glow; For the frost has come and found her With an ermine robe around her Where little Lady Icicle lies dreaming in the snow.

Little Lady Icicle is waking in the north-land, And shaking in the north-land her pillow to and fro; And the hurricane a-skirling Sends the feathers all a-whirling Where little Lady Icicle is waking in the snow.

Little Lady Icicle is laughing in the north-land, And quaffing in the north-land her wines that overflow; All the lakes and rivers crusting That her finger-tips are dusting, Where little Lady Icicle is laughing in the snow.

Little Lady Icicle is singing in the north-land, And bringing from the north-land a music wild and low; And the fairies watch and listen Where her silver slippers glisten, As little Lady Icicle goes singing through the snow.

Little Lady Icicle is coming from the north-land, Benumbing all the north-land where'er her feet may go; With a fringe of frost before her And a crystal garment o'er her, Little Lady Icicle is coming with the snow.

THE LEGEND OF QU'APPELLE VALLEY

I am the one who loved her as my life, Had watched her grow to sweet young womanhood; Won the dear privilege to call her wife, And found the world, because of her, was good. I am the one who heard the spirit voice, Of which the paleface settlers love to tell; From whose strange story they have made their choice Of naming this fair valley the "Qu'Appelle."

She had said fondly in my eager ear-- "When Indian summer smiles with dusky lip, Come to the lakes, I will be first to hear The welcome music of thy paddle dip. I will be first to lay in thine my hand, To whisper words of greeting on the shore; And when thou would'st return to thine own land, I'll go with thee, thy wife for evermore."

Not yet a leaf had fallen, not a tone Of frost upon the plain ere I set forth, Impatient to possess her as my own-- This queen of all the women of the North. I rested not at even or at dawn, But journeyed all the dark and daylight through-- Until I reached the Lakes, and, hurrying on, I launched upon their bosom my canoe.

Of sleep or hunger then I took no heed, But hastened o'er their leagues of waterways; But my hot heart outstripped my paddle's speed And waited not for distance or for days, But flew before me swifter than the blade Of magic paddle ever cleaved the Lake, Eager to lay its love before the maid, And watch the lovelight in her eyes awake.

So the long days went slowly drifting past; It seemed that half my life must intervene Before the morrow, when I said at last-- "One more day's journey and I win my queen!" I rested then, and, drifting, dreamed the more Of all the happiness I was to claim,-- When suddenly from out the shadowed shore, I heard a voice speak tenderly my name.

"Who calls?" I answered; no reply; and long I stilled my paddle blade and listened. Then Above the night wind's melancholy song I heard distinctly that strange voice again-- A woman's voice, that through the twilight came Like to a soul unborn--a song unsung.

I leaned and listened--yes, she spoke my name, And then I answered in the quaint French tongue, "Qu'Appelle? Qu'Appelle?" No answer, and the night Seemed stiller for the sound, till round me fell The far-off echoes from the far-off height-- "Qu'Appelle?" my voice came back, "Qu'Appelle? Qu'Appelle?" This--and no more; I called aloud until I shuddered as the gloom of night increased, And, like a pallid spectre wan and chill, The moon arose in silence in the east.

I dare not linger on the moment when My boat I beached beside her tepee door; I heard the wail of women and of men,-- I saw the death-fires lighted on the shore. No language tells the torture or the pain, The bitterness that flooded all my life,-- When I was led to look on her again, That queen of women pledged to be my wife. To look upon the beauty of her face, The still closed eyes, the lips that knew no breath; To look, to learn,--to realize my place Had been usurped by my one rival--Death. A storm of wrecking sorrow beat and broke About my heart, and life shut out its light Till through my anguish some one gently spoke, And said, "Twice did she call for thee last night."

I started up--and bending o'er my dead, Asked when did her sweet lips in silence close. "She called thy name--then passed away," they said, "Just on the hour whereat the moon arose."