Year: 1871

anu neE NOlus were u low ds me lule-lnrOaIeQ
And IS laden with love as the heart when it beats
In its hot eager answer to earliest love,


Or the bee hurried home bv its burden of sweets
Wei lay low in the grass on the broad plain levels
Old Revels and ], and my sto en- brown bride.


.Forty full miles If foot to ride,


Forty full mines If foot and the devils


OF red Camanches are hot on the track


When once they strike it. Let the sun go down
Soon. very soon, - muttered bearded old Reyels
As ne peered at the sun, lying low on his back,
Holding fast to his lasso; then he jerked at his
And sprang to his feet and glanced swiftly around,
And then dropped, as if shot, with his ear to the


ground,


Then again to his feet, and to me, to my bride,
While his eyes were like ire, his face like a
Bis form Ikea king, and his beard like cloud,
And his voice loud and shrill, as if blown from
"PsIl, pull in your lassos, and bride to steed,
And speed you If ever for life You would speed,
And ride for your hEes-for your lives you must
For the plain is afame. the prairie on fire,


And feet OF wild horse, hard flying before,


hear like sea breaking high on the shore,


Wolfe the buffalo come like surge OF the sea.
Driven far by the flame, driving fast on us three,
AS q hurricane comes, crushing palms in its ire.'
We drew in the lassos. seized saddle and rein,
Threw them on, sinched themi on, sinched them
And again drew the girth cast aside the macheers,
Cut away tapidaros, loosed the sash from It's fold
Cast aside the catenas red and spangled with
And goid-mounted Colts, true companions for
Cast the red silk serapes to the wind in breath;
And so barred 10 the skin, sprang all haste to the


horse,


As bare as when born-as when new from the
or God-without word. or one word of command,
Turned head to the Brazos in q red race with
Turned head to the BrazOs with breath in the


hair


Blowing hot from a king leaving death in his
Turned head to the Brazos with sound in the air
Like the rush OF an army, and flash in the eye
OF q redwall OF fire reaching up to the sky.
Stretching fierce in pursuit of black rolling sea,
Rushing fast upon us as the wind sweeping free
And afar from the desert, bearing death and des-


pair
Not q word, not wall, from a lip was let fall,
Not kiss from my bride, not lOok or low call
OF Iove-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 |
Rode we on, rods we three, rode we gray nose and


nose,
Reaching long, breathing loud, like creviced
Yet we broke not whisper, we breathed not
There was work to be done. there was death in the
And the charce was as one to a thousand for all.
Grsy nose to gray nose, and esch steady mustang
Stretched neck and stretched nerve till the hollow
And the foam lnf from the flank and the Group and


the neck


Flew around like the spray on stOrm-driven


deck.


Twenty milesl thirty milesl....a dim distant
Then iong-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 droop-
Hard on his breast and his naked breast STOPPING
Low down to the name, swifter and bolder
Ran reaching out for us the red-footed fire;
To right and to left the black buffalo came,
In miles and IN millions. rolling on In despair,
Wiki their boards to the dust and black tails in the
As terrible surf on red sea of flame


Rushing on in the rear, reaching high, reaching
And he rode neck to neck with buffalo bull,
The monarch Of millions. with shaggy name full
OF smoke and of dust, and it shook with desire
Of battle with rage aud with bellowings loud
And unearthly; and up through its lowering cloud
Came the flash of his eyes like half-nidden fire,
While his keen, crooked horns through the storm
Like black Iances lifted and lifted again:
And looked bus this once, for the fire licked
And he fell and was lost as we rode two and two.
looked to my left then, and nose, neck, and
Sank slowly. sank surely, TIL back to my thighs;
And up through the black, blowing veil Of her
Did beam full IN mine her TWO marvellous ewes | 4
With longing and love, yet lock Of despair,
And pity for me as she felt the smoke fold her,
And flames reaching far for her glorious hair.
Her sinking steed faltered, his eager ears fell
To and fro and unsteady, and all the neck's swell
Did subside and recede and the nerves fall as dead
Then she saw that my own steed still lorded his
With a look of delight; for this Pache, you see,
Was her fathers. and once at the South Santafee
Had won a whole herd, sweeping everything
In a race where the world came to run for crown.
And so when won the true heart of my bride ]
My neighbor's and deadliest enemy child,
And child of the kingly war chief of his tribe
She brought me this steed to the border the night
She met Revels and me in her perilous flight
From the lodge of the chief to the Iorth Brazos
And said, so half rguessing of i'll as she smiled,
As ifjesting that I. and only should ride
The heetfOoted Pache, so il kin should pursue
should surely escape without other ado
Than to ride, without blood, to the north Brazos
And await her-and wait ill the next hollow
Hung her horn in the palms, when surely and 1
And swift she would join me, and all would ue
without bioodshed or word. And now as she fell ]
From the front, and went down in the ocean OF
The last that saw was alooE of delight
That should escape-a loves desire
Yet never q word not look of appeal, ,
LestI should reach hand, should stay hand or stay
One instant for her in my terrible fight. ,
Then the rushing of fire rose around me and ,


under,
And the bowling of beasts like the sound Of thun-


der 6
Beasts burning and blind, and forced onward and ;


over,
As the passionate flame reached around them and I


woYe her z
Hands in their hair and kissed hot till they died
Till they died with a wild and desolats mosn-
AS q sea heart broken on the hard brown stone.
And into the Brazos.. ..Irode all alone 1
All alone, save only horse long -hmhed, (
And blind and bear and burned to the skin.
Then Just as the terrible sea came in
And tumbled its thousands hot into the tide,
Till the tide blocke1 up, and the swift stream br1m


med


In eddies, we struck on the opposite aide.





Sell Pache-blind Pachef Now, mister, look !


here;


You have slept in my tent and partook of my s


cheer
Many days, many days, on this rugged frontier Y
For the ways they were rough, and Camanches :


were near.
But you'd better pack upl Curse your dirty skinl
Icouldnt have thought you so niggsrdly small ]
Do you men that make books think an old mount :


aineer
On the rough border born has no tum- -tum at all!
Sell Pachel You buy himi A bag full OF goldi 4
You show himl Tell of him the tale have toldi
Why he bore me through fire, and is blind, and II
Now pack ND your papers, and git up and spin,
And never look back Blast you and your uni .
AN old gentleman living near Newbury- {
port, Mass, called for cough medicine at :
z&z-o A. o+Io- Tho first dose