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THE OLD MEN

This is our lot if we live so long and listen to those who love us—

That we are shunned by the people about and shamed by the Powers above us.

Wherefore be free of your harness betimes; but being free be assured,

That he who hath not endured to the death, from his birth he hath never endured!

THE EXPLORER

"THERE'S no sense in going further-it's the edge of cultivation,"

So they said, and I believed it-broke my land and sowed my crop

Built my barns and strung my fences in the little

border station

Tucked away

below the foothills where the trails run

out and stop.

Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable

changes

On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated

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-so:

Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look

behind the Ranges

"Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

THE EXPLORER

So I went, worn out of patience; 'never told my

nearest neighbours

Stole away with pack and ponies-left 'em drinking

in the town;

And the faith that moveth mountains didn't seem to

help my labours

As I faced the sheer main-ranges, whipping up and leading down.

March by march I puzzled through 'em, turning

flanks and dodging shoulders,

Hurried on in hope of water, headed back for lack of

grass;

Till I camped above the tree-line-drifted snow and naked boulders

Felt free air astir to windward-knew I'd stumbled

on the Pass.

'Thought to name it for the finder: but that night the Norther found me

Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies: so I called the camp Despair

(It's the Railway Gap to-day, though). Then my

Whisper waked to hound me:

Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder. Go you there!"

THE EXPLORER

Then I knew, the while I doubted-knew His Hand

was certain o'er me.

Still-it might be self-delusion-scores of better men

had died

I could reach the township living, but

knows what terrors tore me

...

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But I didn't . . . but I didn't. I went down the other side.

Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes,

And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by;

But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the

water drained to shallows

And I dropped again on desert, blasted earth, and blasting sky. . . .

I remember lighting fires; I remember sitting by

them;

I remember seeing faces, hearing voices through the

smoke;

I remember they were fancy-for I threw a stone to try 'em.

Something lost behind the Ranges," was the only

word they spoke.

THE EXPLORER

I remember going crazy. I remember that I knew

it

When I heard myself hallooing to the funny folk I

saw.

Very full of dreams that desert: but my two legs

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And I used to watch 'em moving with the toes all black and raw.

But at last the country altered-White man's country past disputing

Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills

behind

There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting,

Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find.

Thence I ran my first rough survey-chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em

Week by week I pried and sampled-week by week my findings grew.

Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he

found a kingdom!

But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the

worth of two!

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