Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... THE RETURN I HID behind a side-tracked car until there echoed clear As a signal of the starting, two sharp whistles on my ear, Then, with a long, laborious groan the freight got under way And ponderous cars went hulking by like elephants at play. I gripped an iron rung and swung aboard with flapping coat. The engine sent a wailing dirge from its deep iron throat And vanished in a Cut which gaped, a brown gash, new and raw; One either side the jagged rocks, like the broken teeth of a saw Leaped up and down with naked poles and racing strands of wire. . . . Then, flash! the engine reached the plain as a cannon belches fire, Wrapped in a cloud of rolling smoke. As on and on we flew The panorama of the fieldswent shifting out of view. A scared thrush shot up from a bush'and sought the open sky; A herd of cattle raised their heads and stared rebukingly; .Abdve a marching clump of trees a wind-mill spun its wheel, And from a bank of toppling cloud there crashed a thunder-peal. The sun went down, the stars came out, I crouched upon the coal Feeling as if I had been made a lone, unbodied soul: Chance with great hands might crumple me like any gossamer thing, Might o'er the ramparts of the Flesh my startled spirit fling Where a scattered silver dust of worlds stream down through endless night As sun-motes in a darkened room dance down a shaft of light. . . . Now, like gigantic fireflies clustered on a Malay tree, The lamps of the division-end across the dark I see. . . . Dim boxcars huddle everywhere ... I laugh as I alight, For, safe and sound in life and limb, I'm home again tonight! EXPERIENCE In the north where leagues of forest sag beneath the plumey snow, I've worked with lurching-shouldered lumbermen; I've seen the small, grey fishing...
