Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, The

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"></SPAN></p> <h2> The Rhyme of the Remittance Man </h2> <p>There's a four-pronged buck a-swinging in the shadow of my cabin,<br/> And it roamed the velvet valley till to-day;<br/> But I tracked it by the river, and I trailed it in the cover,<br/> And I killed it on the mountain miles away.<br/> Now I've had my lazy supper, and the level sun is gleaming<br/> On the water where the silver salmon play;<br/> And I light my little corn-cob, and I linger, softly dreaming,<br/> In the twilight, of a land that's far away.<br/> <br/> Far away, so faint and far, is flaming London, fevered Paris,<br/> That I fancy I have gained another star;<br/> Far away the din and hurry, far away the sin and worry,<br/> Far away &mdash; God knows they cannot be too far.<br/> Gilded galley-slaves of Mammon &mdash; how my purse-proud brothers taunt me!<br/> I might have been as well-to-do as they<br/> Had I clutched like them my chances,<br/> learned their wisdom, crushed my fancies,<br/> Starved my soul and gone to business every day.<br/> <br/> Well, the cherry bends with blossom and the vivid grass is springing,<br/> And the star-like lily nestles in the green;<br/> And the frogs their joys are singing, and my heart in tune is ringing,<br/> And it doesn't matter what I might have been.<br/> While above the scented pine-gloom, piling heights of golden glory,<br/> The sun-god paints his canvas in the west,<br/> I can couch me deep in clover, I can listen to the story<br/> Of the lazy, lapping water &mdash; it is best.<br/> <br/> While the trout leaps in the river, and the blue grouse thrills the cover,<br/> And the frozen snow betrays the panther's track,<br/> And the robin greets the dayspring with the rapture of a lover,<br/> I am happy, and I'll nevermore go back.<br/> For I know I'd just be longing for the little old log cabin,<br/> With the morning-glory clinging to the door,<br/> Till I loathed the city places, cursed the care on all the faces,<br/> Turned my back on lazar London evermore.<br/> <br/> So send me far from Lombard Street, and write me down a failure;<br/> Put a little in my purse and leave me free.<br/> Say: "He turned from Fortune's offering to follow up a pale lure,<br/> He is one of us no longer &mdash; let him be."<br/> I am one of you no longer; by the trails my feet have broken,<br/> The dizzy peaks I've scaled, the camp-fire's glow;<br/> By the lonely seas I've sailed in &mdash; yea, the final word is spoken,<br/> I am signed and sealed to nature. Be it so.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />