flute of Utah
Calls his mate--
This wild, sad, sunny, brazen country,
Hot as hate.

Again the glittering sky uplifts star-blazing;
Again the stream
From out the far-off snowy mountains
Sings through my dream;
And on the air I hear the flute-voice calling
The lover's croon,
And see the listening, longing maiden
Lit by the moon.

DEVIL'S CLUB

It is a sprawling, hateful thing,
Thorny and twisted like a snake,
Writhing to work a mischief, in the brake
It stands at menace, in its cling
Is danger and a venomed sting.
It grows on green and slimy slopes,
It is a thing of shades and slums,
For passing feet it wildly gropes,
And loops to catch all feet that run
Seeking a path to sky and sun.

IN THE COLD GREEN MOUNTAINS

In the cold green mountains where the savage torrents roared,
And the clouds were gray above us,
And the fishing eagle soared,
Where no grass waved, where no robins cried,
There our horses starved and died,
In the cold green mountains.

In the cold green mountains,
Nothing grew but moss and trees,
Water dripped and sludgy streamlets
Trapped our horses by the knees.
Where we slipped, slid, and lunged,
Mired down and wildly plunged
Toward the cold green mountains!

CHAPTER XVI

THE PASSING OF THE BEANS

At noon, the rain slacking a little, we determined to pack up, and
with such cheer as we could called out, "Line up, boys--line up!"
starting on our way down the trail.

After making about eight miles we came upon a number of outfits
camped on the bank of the river. As I rode along on my gray horse,
for the trail there allowed me to ride, I passed a man seated
gloomily at the mouth of his tent. To him I called with an assumption
of jocularity I did not feel, "Stranger, where are you bound for?"

He replied, "The North Pole."

"Do you expect to get there?"

"Sure," he replied.

Riding on I met others beside the trail, and all wore a similar look
of almost sullen gravity. They were not disposed to joke with me, and
perceiving something to be wrong, I passed on without further remark.

When we came down to the bank of the stream, behold it ran to the
right. And I could have sat me down and blasphemed with the rest. I
now understood the gloom of the others. _We were still in the valley
of the inexorable Skeena._ It could be noth