May have fathomed the mystery.

But the hills on our borders
Are silent old warders,
And the winds which rejoice
No articulate voice.

Oh! ye pure larger airs
Ye will scatter our cares--
Mighty bastions of ours,
Uplift that which cowers,

For behind your grave brows
Are a thousand strong "Nows--"
And the wind has a "must"
In its rude healthy gust.

How it braces and rightens
That wind to make Titans!
Its strenuous wooing
Says, "Up, lads, and doing."

So leaving the high down
Like giants we stride down;
While the valleys before us
Resound to our chorus.

Having been each a seer
To whom all things were near,
Not resenting or grieving
But simply believing.

The Happy Ones.

They awaited with head erect
Whatever fate could befall them;
Tried but the good to recollect,
Cried for the truth to call them.
To be loved by the children of other suns
And send a message to find them,
This is the fate of the happiest ones
Tho' the mortar of life may grind them.
They were like swimmers breasting the waves
In the troughs of a stormy channel,
They are silent now in their lonely graves,
But the world has become the panel.
They wore the truth like a bridal dress
And sorrow like wedding apparel,
Tho' the placid laughed at their foolishness
And the cynic sneered from his barrel.
Or like the wandering Ishmaelites,
Who found no city to dwell in,
Whose lonely hearts ached for pleasant sights,
Whose graves were the places they fell in,
Rock their pillow and sand their bed,
As the sun of the desert paints them;
The fierce kites screaming overhead,
And the hands of all men against them.
But a word goes out and over the earth,
From the silent burying-places,
Like a gentle rain in a land of dearth,
And lights up the tired faces.
It brings a roof and a sweet abode
To many a soul that is vagrant;
Their names are blossoms along the road
And their lives are for ever fragrant.
We who sorrow are brothers of theirs,
Because of their beautiful sorrows,
Wheat will grow up among the tares,
And young corn grow in the furrows.

A Question.

Why do you prate to me
Of deeds unjust and just,
Moved by a story of good
Or a monstrous tale of crimes--