Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-08-11
POETRY.
KIT C.sRsO.N-S RIDE.



mt no ia badger blind, and IL happened this wise-
We lay in the grasses and sunburnt clover,
That spread on the ground like great brown cover
and southwark and west and away
To the Brazos to where our lodges lay,
one broad and unbroken of brown,
AwAtings Of night TO come down
To cover over and conceal our digit
with my brown bride, won from an indian town
That lay In the rear the full ride Of night.
We lounged in the grasses her eyes were In mine
And her hands my knee and her hair was as wine
In It's wealth and it's flood, pouring on and oil over
Her bosom wine-red and pressed never by one,
And her touch was aH warm as the tnge OF the clover
Burnt brown as II reached to the kiss Of the sun.
And her words were % low as the utethroated dove
And as laden with love as the heart when 1t beats
In its hot eager snswor to earliest love,
Oh the bee hurried home by its burthen OF sweets
We lay low in the grass the broad plain levels,
Old Revels and 1, and my stolen brown bride.
'FOrty full miles II foot 10 ride,
Forty full miles II foot, and the devils
OF red Camsnches hot on the track
when once they strike It. Let the sun 20 down
Soon, very soon, " muttered bearded old Revels
Az he peered at the sun, lying low on his back,
And sprAng to his feet, and glanced swiftly around,
And then dropped rs II shot, with his to the
Then again to his feet and to me, to my bride,
while his eyes like Are, his face like shroud,
His form like king, and his beard like cloud
And his voice loud and shri rs If blown from reed,
'Pull pull in your lsssos, and bride to steed,
And speed, IL ever for life you would speed;
And ride for your lives, for your lives you mast ride
For the plain ~ afame, the prairie on FIRE,
And feet Of wild horses hard flying before
l hear like a sea breaking high on the shore,
While the buffalo come Ike surge OF the sea,
Driven far by the fame driving fast on us three
Az a hurricane comes crushing palms in his ire
We drew in the lassos, seized saddle and rein;
Threw them on, sinched them on, sinched them over
again.
And again drew the girth, cast aside the macheer,
Cut away tapidaros oosed the sash from it's fold,
Cast aside the catenas red and spanged with gold,
d.
Cast the red silk serapes to the wind in breath
And barred to the skin sprsng all haste to the horse
AS bare as when born, a. when new from the hand
OF God without word, or one word Of command.
Turned head to the Drazos in red race with DEATH
Turned head 70 the Brazos with breath in the hair
Blowing hot from king leaving death In his course;
Turned head to the Brazos with sound In the air
Like the rush Of an army, and flash in the eye
Of q red wall Of fire reaching up to the sky,
stretching herce in pursuit of black rolling sea-
Rushing fast upon us as the wind sweeping free
And afar from the desert, bearing death and despair
Not word, not wall from lip waslet fall,
Not kiss from my bride, not a look or low call
OF lOve-nOte or courage, but on DER the plain
SO steady and still, leaning low to the name,
With the heel to the flank and the hand to the rein
Rode we on, we three, rode we gray nose and nose,
Reaching long, breathing loud, like a crevced wind
blows,
Yet we broke not Whisper we breathed not
There was work to be done, there death in the
And the chance was rs one to a thousand for all.
Gray nose to gray nose, and each steady mustang
Stretched neck and stretched nerve till the hollow
earth rang,
And the foam from the flank and the Group and the
neck
Pew around like the spray on storm-driven deck.
Twenty miles thirty miles ! dim distant speck
Then long reaching line and the Brazos in sight,
And rose in my seat with shout OF delight.
| stood in my stirrup and looked to my right
But Revels was gone; glanced by my shoulder
And saw his horse stagger; saw his head dropping
Hard on his breast, aud his naked breast STOPPING
Low down to the mane, "a so swifter and holder
Ran reaching out for US the red-footed fire;
To right and to left the buffalo came,
In miles and in millions, rolling ON IN despair
with their boards the dust and black tails in the air.
"A a terrible surf on red sea Of flame.
Rushing ON in the rear, reaching high reaching
higher.
And he rode neck to neck to a buffalo bull,
The monarch Of millions with shaggy name fun
OF smoke and of dust, and 1t shook with desire
OF battle, with rage and with bellowings loud
And unearthy, and up through Its lowering cloud
Came the flash Of his eyes like q half hidden fire.
While his keen crooked horns through the storm Of
Like black lsnces lifted and lifted again;
Aud looked out but this once, for the fire licked
through
And he fell aud lost, as We rode two aud two.
looked to my left then and nose neck and shoulder
sank slowly sank surely till back to my thighs;
Did beam fun in mine her two marvellous eyes
WIN longing and loye. ye, a look Of despair,
Aud flames reaching far for her glorious hair,
Her sinking steed faltered, his eager cars fen
Did subside aud recede, and the nerves fall as dead
Then she saw that my own sieed still lorded his head
With look OF delight, for this Psche, you see,
Was her fathers, and once at the South Santafee
Had won whole herd sweeping everything down
In race where the world came to run for the
And 80 when won this true heart Of my bride
My neighbprs and dcadliest enemy's child.
And child Of the kingly war-chief Of his tribe
She brought me this ste ID to the border the night
She met heyels and me in her perilous flight
From the lodge Of the chief to the north Brazos side
And said, 30 half guessing Of III as she smiled,
A hat nd mi hon drfdn
The heet-footed Pnche, so If kin should pursue
should surely escape without other ado
Than to ride without blood to the north Brhzos side
And await her-And wait till the next hollow moon
Hung her horn in the palms, when surely and soon
Ana hwif1 she would join me- and all would be well
without bloodshed or word. And now as she fell
From the front, and went down in the Of IRE
me last tina, saw was look of delight
That should escape-A Iowa desire
Yet never word, not u look OF appeal,
Lest l should reach hand, should stay hand sta
heel
one instant for her in my terrible flight
Then the rushing Of fire rose around me and under,
And the bowling Of beasts like the sound Of the thun
Beasts burning and blind and forced onward and over
As the passionate famo reached around them an
Hands in their hair and kissed hot till they died
Till they died with wild and desolate moan,
As u sea heart-broken on the hard brown stone
Ana INTO the braLos rode all alone
All alone, save only horse long limbed
And blind and bare and burnt to the skin.
Then just a. the terrible in
And tumbled It's thousands hot into the tide,
Till the tide blocked up aud the swift stream briInme
In eddics we struck on the opposite side
Sell Pache blind Pache? Now, mister look here,
You have slept in my tent and partook of my cheer
Many days, many days, on this rugged frontier,
For the ways they were rough and Camsnches Wer
near;
But you'd better pack up Curse your dirty old skin
couldn't have til ought you niggardly small.
Do you men that make boots think an old mountain
On the rough border born has tum-tnm at all?
sell Pache? You buy him bag full OF gold
You show him Tell Of him the tale have told?
Why he bore me through FIRE, and is blind and Is old
Now pack up your papers and get up and spin,
ueV bnr nastV