Sam Walter Foss

“ But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by–
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban:
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I see from my house by the side of the road,
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife. ”

“ Bring me men to match my plains, —
Men with empires in their purpose,
And new eras in their brains. ”

“ And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah! many things this tale might teach --
But I am not ordained to preach.
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”