News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-07-04
EN1'ENNIhL POEM.
The Talk of the Mountains.

tent on Knowing
Mnutely what VOU were abOut.-FOur com
ing, and your going
Had yOu but seen the hues of morn and eve
about them playing,
(As if their wealth of fairy robes they revel in
Displaying
The white, and red, and green. and gold, and
blue so many-Shaded.-
As seasons changed, as rOsy-hngered dawn,
and evening, faded);-
Had you but drawn your very breath from
breezes that had famed them
You would have felt, you would have said
that you could understand them
They smile, and weep, and GLOW. and frown,
now humOring, now reprOvHg:
And make You hseL their tenderness, through
gravity unmoving:-
They speak to every living soul that looks
and listens near them;
Given eye and ear adjusted right, who will
may overhear them.
They told me this (I tell it you half doubling
if ought)
In voice so quiet | could scarce discern it
from a thought.
. No other witness?" you can ask the tele
graphic wire;
(So given to gossip that it talks all day and
night for hire;)
Along Winooski and Lamoille it tattles west
and south,
With tn branch that climbs the - Chin and
ends somewhere about the mouth,
Devoted, every inch of it, to Mansfield, it is
stated,
So it must bear the blame of all that seems
exaggerated -
Perhaps the wire may tell you, too, as near
as it will rhyme
A Legend-somewhat fanciful-of prehistoric
time.
The Camel's Hump" is there on high, his
head, as you might think,
Is by the rivers bed where once he ran to
kneel and drink,
But, stumbling in his thirsty haste he threw
his rider high.
And there lies e Mansfield as he fell, a-star-
ing at the sky:
This dashing youth, IA giant in his pride, (say
naught of birth,)
Had laid bet on time to ride the Camel" 5"
round the earth.
But-weary. being Over-driven.-here ended
all his pacing;
And tn Fates condemned them there to lie,
a warning against racing.
Where is the rest of Mansfield, then -? most
likely settled in
Go ask him, for he seems to have "A tendency
to chin; -
(AIl racing men have tendencies that way, We
must suppose;
Though, as for patron saint, they need more
intellect and-nOse;)
May be u broken shoulder-blade is sticking
uD in Eden;
May be that. over east, a mighty hand was
vainly pleading,
{ r.
yon sharp crag abiding,)
CIose-clenched in dudgeOn at that fellow in
FrancOnia hiding
Though some have thought the accident re-
sslted more from fright?
They coming, prestol on another in sorry
plight =
just gibbeted, crack went the limb, and in
the muddy plain,
Yet struggling, he deeply sunk, (you know
the dent" Champlain ~
Rope limb indented too, (lonk north st.
Lawrence and SOrelle;')
Who questions if the Camel 80 .Shiod2 What
wonder - Mansfield fell?
How came that giant gibbeted the know
ing ones opine,
En- route for Canada, they caught him just
this side the line.
An Elephant was coming too, way back.
as it appears.
But shocked, has stood for ages, counting all
Centennials, years =
No rider found, the water filling all that dent
"Champlain;
That's all-unless the stone lips ~ New
Hampshire will explain.
Ages have cooled rash Mansfield's' blood
and chastened his ambition,
Until he makes the very best of his forlor
condition;
While the poor Camel takes it i'll, is alway
in pet;
Finding. IN every move oI man, something
make him fret;
Cannot help humping up his back; an'
much as in him lies.
Taunts Mansfield" with his broken skull, an
buried ears and eyes,
Yet so affected, mentally, by what abol
That. first YOU hear him, you will thin
Some hackwoods Yankee talks.
'sTalk ?-man and Camel? mountains, botl
Quite credulous you deem us %
That's easy evolution. See Cope, HuXle
Uncle Remus.
One moonlight night, as the late trains we
Dragging on their way,
Those saucy echoes giving chase TIL tired
the play,
There was a sound of voices somewhere frc
overhead
And far as it could be made out, the ang
Camel said
Agin. that striplin airth-quake on rail
Coin fer Canada. like all the rest, leg ball T!
Let loose a man from nOthin' don We shrln
He'll soon contrIve to dH all he can think:
Coax i'm We can't, no matter who 'tls begs
Slash 'im in tn, he's up on wooden pegs;
IN fire wont burn i'm, We en- see he chaWs
Mas fer Iightnin the imp gees n 'haws
o fer a night as still, n clear, n fair.
As hangs around tn grand old desert, the
Where Peace within her shad 'ry tent can Ike
Quiet lie down. n stiffness go to sleep!
n ei' me summers sich as once come here,
(But never lately, more'n herd o deeT')
When Natur took 'er time t work 'er plan
No need t watch agin this gray back IN
did make out to bear it, when she shed
Her aprn-full o rocks about my head,
T. hold me down. N all these spruces greN
TilImOunting appeared { he, clean throu
But here's a pest as kicks tn hills about;
I.ashes all GRAFTON I a break meek rout;
Can't find thing but he must make sho
Round with II tent, tootin n yellln go;
Luckv they hav'n't found jest what am,
'R little I'd have left, frum head t ham
M I'm a-dreadin' when theyH drill
through,
Someson o. HagarIl scratch is head upo
NJ boast, What monsters used Craze
mont"
"Why neighbOr Camel, Mansfield crl
''are you so blue as this?
What former times pray, might they
which you sadly miss :?
''They pile what they call Art''-a loa
lead
On Natur's hoIler back, frum heels { hea'
Cut burn blow up. N make an awiui WI
N lay Their irons right across my meek,
IN every now an then, go whnzln by,
As il they'd took a start leap tn sky
Saw. don't We wish they wuz all torn IN q
Now they keep comm crawlin over you
You look tired out with all tn tus n dlii
N there's a nest a-twiXt yer nose n ehiI
Say, ha'n't We got enough you "OuIuH
N now they cover YOU an peStel iiiV-
What did tell ye? come, own up! owl
Amt yer SOUP gritty. now we've got I 81
Say, amt We tired o yer monkey-sass
Feel some like Neb when he got out q
/ said. ez soon's ole Indian Joe come rou
We'd better shake, an put i'm under gro
Or ther'd be mOre!"-
IJust here the breezes all began to
| caught some words, and then some Il
passages, like this;-J
'.There NAV be fools among the lot, blu
are made, no doubt,
But tn stars remain when comets bolt
meteors peter out! .
This wind a-charging to the SOUTH bio"
the air away,
Nor will these times rout anything that
ought to stay!
And when the crowd begins to come
scramble over me,
Recounting all the beauties of the cr
scenery,
As if 'twere new what we have seen, 70
tentennials past,
The dawn, the rise of sun, the thunder
and northern blast,
The hills and valleys, lakes and stream
villages and farms,
The preaching spires the Ginning bel
thousand other charms
| take it my compliment and very
am
OF somethingelse to use the time than $
at the sky
Sweet, to the aged and infrm, who {
keep the van,
[sAIount Elephants
ItProf Hsgar vermont's first State GeolOgi