Project Gutenberg's A Little Norsk; Or, Ol' Pap's Flaxen, by Hamlin Garland

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Title: A Little Norsk; Or, Ol' Pap's Flaxen

Author: Hamlin Garland

Release Date: June 18, 2007 [EBook #21850]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE NORSK ***

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A LITTLE NORSK

OR

OL' PAP'S FLAXEN

By

HAMLIN GARLAND

AUTHOR OF MAIN TRAVELED ROADS, A MEMBER OF THE THIRD HOUSE,
A SPOIL OF OFFICE, JASON EDWARDS, ETC.

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1892

Copyright, 1892,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

Printed at the
Appleton Press, U.S.A.

On the Plain.

_My cabin cowers in the pathless sweep
Of the terrible northern blast;
Above its roof the wild clouds leap
And shriek as they hurtle past.
The snow-waves hiss along the plain,
Like spectral wolves they stretch and strain
And race and ramp--with hissing beat,
Like stealthy tread of myriad feet,
I hear them pass; upon the roof
The icy showers swirl and rattle;
At times the moon, from storms aloof,
Shines white and wan within the room--
Then swift clouds drive across the light
And all the plain is lost to sight,
The cabin rocks, and on my palm
The sifted snow falls, cold and calm._

_God! What a power is in the wind!
I lay my cheek to the cabin side
To feel the weight of his giant hands--
A speck, a fly in the blasting tide
Of streaming, pitiless, icy sands;
A single heart with its feeble beat--
A mouse in the lion's throat--
A swimmer at sea--a sunbeam's mote
In the grasp of a tempest of hail and sleet!_

Contents.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.
Her Adoptive Parents 1

CHAPTER II.
Her First Trip in a Blizzard 9

CHAPTER III.
The Burial of her Dead Mother