Joaquin Miller

“ The babes that knew not what the way through sands
Could mean, did ask if it would end today.
The panting wolves slid by, red-eyed, in bands
To pools beyond. The men look'd far away,
And silent deemed that all a boundless desert lay.
They rose by night, they struggl'd on and on
As thin and still as ghosts ; then here and there
Beside the dusty way before the dawn,
Men silent laid them down in their despair,
And died. But woman ! Woman, frail as fair !
May man have strength to give to you your due ”

“ A hue of .weary brown, and wild and wide
ft stretch'd its naked breast on every side.
A babe was heard at last to cry for bread
A mid the deserts; cattle low'd and died,
And dying men went by with broken tread,
And left a long black serpent line of wreck and dead. ”

“ Of great endeavor.
* * * * * * *
⁠When
Adown the shining iron track
We sweep, and fields of corn flash back,
And herds of lowing steers move by,
I turn to other days, to men
Who made a pathway with their dust. ”