Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-04-12
THE GoLDTHAT GREW BY SHASTA
TOWN.

From Shasta town to Redding town
The ground is torn by miners, dead;
The manzanita, rank and red
Drops dusty berries up and down
Their grass.grown trails Their silent mine
Are wrapped in chapparel and vines;
Yet ono gtny minor still sits down
Twixt Reuding and sweet Shasta town.
The quhil:pipes pleasantly. Tho haro
Leaps careless DER the golden oat
That grows below tho water moat;
Ihe liznrd basks in Sunlight there
Inc brown hawk swims tho perfumed air
AND now and thon n curious bear
Comes shuilling down the ditch by night,
Ann leaves some wide, long tracks in clay
so human-like, so stealthy light,
Where one lone cabin still stoops down
'Twixt Redding and sweet Shasta town.
That great graveyard of hopes! OF mon
VINO sought for hidden veins of gold;
or young men suddenly grown old
vi old mon dead, dcspairing when
Tho gold was just within their hold,
That storied land, whereon tho light
VI other days CLEANS family still;
Somelike the halo of hill
That lifts above tho falling night.
That warm, red, rich, and human land.
Ihat iiesll'r red soil, that warm red sand,
w here one gray miner still sits down.
'Twixt RcddinS and sweet Shasta townl
III know the vein is herel" he said:
t0r twenty years, for thirty yeurs
While far away fell tears on tears
FROM wife and babe who mourncd him dead
No gold no goldl And he grew old
Ana crept to toll with bendcl head,
Amid graveyard of his dead
Still seeking for that vein oil gold,
Then 10, came laughing down tho years
n sweet s,rluIphiIul Rot yyrnu his t.,r,
de laughed He set her by the door
The while lie toiled his days toll DER,
do held Eer chubby cheeks between
HIS har'i palms, laughed and laughing cried.
\ on should have seen, have heard and soon
Ills Loysl Joy, his stout old pride,
When toll was done and he sat down
at night. below sweet Shasta towni
At last his strength was gone. mo mo-ol
miiin no more plant me now
a VINO niid iii:-trcc; worn anu Old,
sock no more my vein Of gold.
but, oh, sigh 10 give it DER:
these thirty years OF TOLL somehow
1t seems SO hard; but now, no more"
ANA so The old man set him down
10 plant, Ivy pleasant Shasta town.
Anu IL was pleasant; pipcd tho quail
Inc inii yenr through The chipmunk stole,
MS whiskered nose and tossy tail
Full buried IN the sugar bowl
Ahd purple grapes and grapes OF gold
swung sweet as milk White orangc-trccs
Srew brown with laden honey bees.
IN. IL was pleasant up and down
That vine-se. hill of Shasta town!
Aud then That cloud burst came. All. mol
Tint torn ditch there. The mellow land
No'ici senward like II rope of sand,
Nor left one leafy vine or tire,
" that Eden Nesting down
below 'hat moat by Shasta town!
= q
The old man sat his cabins sill.
ms gray head bowed upon his knee.
i az, en- went forth, sang pleasantly,
nero burst the ditch the day before.
AM picked some pebbles from the hill.
Ire od man moaned, moanei DER md oar.
MY babe is dowcrless, and "
HusU io.u my helpless hands and diel
All, me! what curse ONES ever down
On mo and mine NJ Shastn town.
GOOD Grandpa, see." tho glad child said,
ANA so leaned softly to his side.
l.nld her gold head to his gray hend
Ana nerry-voccd and CHEEKY cried
1ooi Grandpa, do not Weep, but seef
we found peck of orange seeds,
searched tho hill for vine or tree;
Hot onc!-not even onts or weeds:
But oil, such heaps OF orange ~. dat
ny, LONE good Grandpa, Now. once YOU sniJ
LIN; Ihnt God is good. So this may teach
mt we must plnnt each seed, and each
may grow To he an or;lnge-tree
NOW. good Grandpa, please raise your ho,d
And please come plant the see is with mo
And prattlin thus, or like to this,
Inc child thrust her full hands in his.
ne ,sprang, sprang upright us of old.
~, Is gold! Z is gold! my hidden yeint
II god for you, sweet babe Il is goIIi
ca, Coli good; we plant aguin,i
80 one old miner still sits do@n
BY pleasant, sunlight Shns,, tnn.,
Joaquin lhpcr, in 81. Nicholas.