* * * * *

Hark! Oh hark! I can hear the bells!... Look! I can see her there,

Fair as a dream ... but it fades ... And now--I can hear the

dreadful hum

Of the crowded court ... See! the Judge looks down ... NOT GUILTY,

my Lord, I swear ...

The bells, I can hear the bells again ... Ethel, I come, I come!...

* * * * *

"Rouse up, old man, it's twelve o'clock. You can't sleep here, you

know.

Say! ain't you got no sentiment? Lift up your muddled head;

Have a drink to the glad New Year, a drop before you go--

You darned old dirty hobo ... My God! Here, boys! He's DEAD!"

COMFORT

Say! You've struck a heap of trouble--

Bust in business, lost your wife;

No one cares a cent about you,

You don't care a cent for life;

Hard luck has of hope bereft you,

Health is failing, wish you'd die--

Why, you've still the sunshine left you,

And the big, blue sky.

Sky so blue it makes you wonder

If it's heaven shining through;

Earth so smiling 'way out yonder,

Sun so bright it dazzles you;

Birds a-singing, flowers a-flinging

All their fragrance on the breeze;

Dancing shadows, green, still meadows--

Don't you mope, you've still got these.

These, and none can take them from you;

These, and none can weigh their worth.

What! you're tired and broke and beaten?--

Why, you're rich--you've got the earth!

Yes, if you're a tramp in tatters,

While the blue sky bends above,

You've got nearly all that matters,

You've got God, and God is love.

PREMONITION

'Twas a year ago and the moon was bright

(Oh, I remember so well, so well),

I walked with my love in a sea of light,

And the voice of my sweet was a silver bell.

And sudden the moon grew strangely dull,

And sudden my love had taken wing;

I looked on the face of a grinning skull,

I strained to my heart a ghastly thing.

'Twas but fantasy, for my love lay still

In my arms with her tender eyes aglow,

And she wondered why my lips were chill,

Why I was silent and kissed her so.

A year has gone and the moon is bright,

A gibbous moon like a ghost of woe;

I sit by a new-made grave to-night,

And my heart is broken--it's strange, you know.

THE TRAMPS

Can you recall, dear comrade, when we tramped God's land together,

And we sang the old, old Earth-song, for our youth was very sweet;

When we drank and fought and lusted, as we mocked at tie and tether,

Along the road to Anywhere, the wide world at our feet.

Along the road to Anywhere, when each day had its story;

When time was yet our vassal, and life's jest was still unstale;

When peace unfathomed filled our hearts as, bathed in amber glory,

Along the road to Anywhere we watched the sunsets pale.

Alas! the road to Anywhere is pitfalled with disaster;

There's hunger, want, and weariness, yet O we loved it so!

As on we tramped exultantly, and no man was our master,

And no man guessed what dreams were ours, as swinging heel and toe,

We tramped the road to Anywhere, the magic road to Anywhere,

The tragic road to Anywhere, such dear, dim years ago.

_L'ENVOI_

_You who have lived in the Land,

You who have trusted the trail;

You who are strong to withstand,

You who are swift to assail;

Songs have I sung to beguile,

Vintage of desperate years

Hard as a harlot's smile,

Bitter as unshed tears._

_Little of joy or mirth,

Little of ease I sing;

Sagas of men of earth,

Humanly suffering,

Such as you all have done;

Savagely faring forth,

Sons of the midnight sun,

Argonauts of the North._