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. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ...Branch Born at New London, Conn., and still living there. WHILE LOVELINESS GOES BY t Sometimes when all the world seems grey and dun And nothing beautiful, a voice will cry, " Look out, look out! Angels are drawing nigh! " Then my slow burdens leave me one by one, And swiftly does my heart arise and run Even like a child while loveliness goes by--And common folk seem children of the sky, And common things seem shaped of the sun. Oh, pitiful! that I who love them, must So soon perceive their shining garments fade! And slowly, slowly, from my eyes of trust Their flaming banners sink into a shade! While this earth's sunshine seems the golden dust Slow settling from that radiant cavalcade. Anna Hempstead Branch THE TRAIL-MAKERS North and west along the coast among the misty islands, Sullen in the grip of night and smiling in the day: Nunivak and Akutan, with Nome against the highlands, On we drove with plated prow agleam with frozen spray. Loud we sang adventuring and lustily we jested; Quarreled, fought, and then forgot the taunt, the blow, the jeers; Named a friend and clasped a hand--a compact sealed, attested; Shared tobacco, yarns, and drink, and planned surpassing years. Then-.--the snow that locked the trail where famine's shadow followed Out across the blinding white and through the stabbing cold, Past tents along the tundra over faces blotched and hollowed; Toothless mouths that babbled foolish songs of hidden gold. Wisdom, lacking sinews for the toil, gave over trying; Fools, with thews of iron, blundered on and won the fight; Weaklings drifted homeward; else they tarried--worse than dying--With the painted lips and wastrels on the edges of the night. Berries of the saskatoon were ripening and falling; Flowers decked the barren with...
