Howard V. Sutherland

“ When the wind is joyous-hearted it stirs the graceful spruces,
And they nod at one another and toss their arms in abandon;
Then they sway their supple bodies in wonderful undulations,
Keeping a perfect time with the wind's mysterious music.
Then the watchmen of the forest, the solemn and silent birches,
Bend stiffly their stately heads, saluting their laughing sisters;
And the alders wake from slumber, and the willows grieve no longer
When the wild wind woos the stream and sets the trees a-dancing. ”

“ Till Spring's first song shall waken them again.
The white world sleeps, and all is very still,
Except when rises on the frosted air
From out its chilly and forbidding lair
A lone wolf's howl, long-drawn and terrible.
[Pg 8]
The Unassuageable
I sometimes hear among the snow-clad trees
The lone wind chanting solemn symphonies.
I sometimes smell, while yet the woods are bare,
The breath of unborn blossoms in the air.
I am at times aware of gentle sighs
There where the creek, ice-fettered, dreaming lies. ”

“ Yet one is also reminded that, even in the Klondyke, in due season the brooding spruces are awakened from slumber by the songs of happy-throated songsters, that the melancholy of the forest is brightened by gay flowers. The weight is then lifted from men's hearts; singing is heard in the cabin, and the sound of laughter on the trail. When the mighty Yukon is open to the Behring Sea, the far North is in touch with the world and men are glad. ”