The Old Soldiers Story Part 3

DEFORMED

Crouched at the corner of the street She sits all day, with face too white And hands too wasted to be sweet In anybody's sight.

Her form is shrunken, and a pair Of crutches leaning at her side Are crossed like homely hands in prayer At quiet eventide.

Her eyes--two l.u.s.trous, weary things-- Have learned a look that ever aches, Despite the ready jinglings The pa.s.ser's penny makes.

And, noting this, I pause and muse If any precious promise touch This heart that has so much to lose If dreaming overmuch--

And, in a vision, mistily Her future womanhood appears,-- A picture framed with agony And drenched with ceaseless tears--

Where never lover comes to claim The hand outheld so yearningly-- The laughing babe that lisps her name Is but a fantasy!

And, brooding thus, all swift and wild A daring fancy, strangely sweet, Comes o'er me, that the crippled child That crouches at my feet--

Has found her head a resting-place Upon my shoulder, while my kiss Across the pallor of her face Leaves crimson trails of bliss.

FAITH

The sea was breaking at my feet, And looking out across the tide, Where placid waves and heaven meet, I thought me of the Other Side.

For on the beach on which I stood Were wastes of sands, and wash, and roar, Low clouds, and gloom, and solitude, And wrecks, and ruins--nothing more.

"O, tell me if beyond the sea A heavenly port there is!" I cried, And back the echoes laughingly "There is! there is!" replied.

THE LOST THRILL

I grow so weary, someway, of all thing That love and loving have vouchsafed to me, Since now all dreamed-of sweets of ecstasy Am I possessed of: The caress that clings-- The lips that mix with mine with murmurings No language may interpret, and the free, Unfettered brood of kisses, hungrily Feasting in swarms on honeyed blossomings Of pa.s.sion's fullest flower--For yet I miss The essence that alone makes love divine-- The subtle flavoring no tang of this Weak wine of melody may here define:-- A something found and lost in the first kiss A lover ever poured through lips of mine.

AT DUSK

A something quiet and subdued In all the faces that we meet; A sense of rest, a solitude O'er all the crowded street; The very noises seem to be Crude utterings of harmony, And all we hear, and all we see, Has in it something sweet.

Thoughts come to us as from a dream Of some long-vanished yesterday; The voices of the children seem Like ours, when young as they; The hand of Charity extends To meet Misfortune's, where it blends, Veiled by the dusk--and oh, my friends, Would it were dusk alway!

ANOTHER RIDE FROM GHENT TO AIX

We sprang for the side-holts--my gripsack and I-- It dangled--I dangled--we both dangled by.

"Good speed!" cried mine host, as we landed at last-- "Speed?" chuckled the watch we went lumbering past; Behind shut the switch, and out through the rear door I glared while we waited a half hour more.

I had missed the express that went thundering down Ten minutes before to my next lecture town, And my only hope left was to catch this "wild freight,"

Which the landlord remarked was "most luckily late-- But the twenty miles distance was easily done, If they run half as fast as they usually run!"

Not a word to each other--we struck a snail's pace-- Conductor and brakeman ne'er changing a place-- Save at the next watering-tank, where they all Got out--strolled about--cut their names on the wall, Or listlessly loitered on down to the pile Of sawed wood just beyond us, to doze for a while.

'Twas high noon at starting, but while we drew near "Arcady" I said, "We'll not make it, I fear!

I must strike Aix by eight, and it's three o'clock now; Let me stoke up that engine, and I'll show you how!"

At which the conductor, with patience sublime, Smiled up from his novel with, "Plenty of time!"

At "Trask," as we jolted stock-still as a stone, I heard a cow bawl in a five o'clock tone; And the steam from the saw-mill looked misty and thin, And the snarl of the saw had been stifled within: And a frowzy-haired boy, with a hat full of chips, Came out and stared up with a smile on his lips.

At "Booneville," I groaned, "Can't I telegraph on?"

No! Why? "'Cause the telegraph-man had just gone To visit his folks in Almo"--and one heard The sharp snap of my teeth through the throat of a word, That I dragged for a mile and a half up the track, And strangled it there, and came skulkingly back.

Again we were off. It was twilight, and more, As we rolled o'er a bridge where beneath us the roar Of a river came up with so wooing an air I mechanic'ly strapped myself fast in my chair As a brakeman slid open the door for more light, Saying: "Captain, brace up, for your town is in sight!"

"How they'll greet me!"--and all in a moment--"chew.a.n.g!"

And the train stopped again, with a b.u.mp and a bang.

What was it? "The section-hands, just in advance."

And I spit on my hands, and I rolled up my pants, And I clumb like an imp that the fiends had let loose Up out of the depths of that deadly caboose.

I ran the train's length--I lept safe to the ground-- And the legend still lives that for five miles around They heard my voice hailing the hand-car that yanked Me aboard at my bidding, and gallantly cranked, As I grovelled and clung, with my eyes in eclipse, And a rim of red foam round my rapturous lips.

Then I cast loose my ulster--each ear-tab let fall-- Kicked off both my shoes--let go arctics and all-- Stood up with the boys--leaned--patted each head As it bobbed up and down with the speed that we sped; Clapped my hands--laughed and sang--any noise, bad or good, Till at length into Aix we rotated and stood.

And all I remember is friends flocking round As I unsheathed my head from a hole in the ground; And no voice but was praising that hand-car divine, As I rubbed down its spokes with that lecture of mine.

Which (the citizens voted by common consent) Was no more than its due. 'Twas the lecture they meant.

IN THE HEART OF JUNE

In the heart of June, love, You and I together, On from dawn till noon, love, Laughing with the weather; Blending both our souls, love, In the selfsame tune, Drinking all life holds, love, In the heart of June.

In the heart of June, love, With its golden weather, Underneath the moon, love, You and I together.

Ah! how sweet to seem, love, Drugged and half aswoon With this luscious dream, love, In the heart of June.