SONGS OF THE SIERRAS.

ARIZONIAN.

66

nd I have said, and I say it ever,

Asthe years goonand the world goes over,

'Twere better to be content and clever,

In the tending of cattle and the tossing of clover,

In the grazing of cattle and growing of grain,
Than a strong man striving for fame or gain;
Be even as kine in the red-tipp'd clover:
For they lie down and their rests are rests,
And the days are theirs, come sun, come rain,
To rest, rise up, and repose again;

While we wish and yearn, and pray in vain,
And hope to ride on the billows of bosoms,
And hope to rest in the haven of breasts,
Till the heart is sicken'd and the fair hope
dead-

Be even as clover with its crown of blossoms,
Even as blossoms ere the bloom is shed,

Kiss'd by the kine and the brown sweet bee—
For these have the sun, and moon, and air,
And never a bit of the burthen of care:
And with all of our caring what more have we?

"I would court content like a lover lonely, I would woo her, win her, and wear her only. I would never go over the white sea wall For gold or for glory or for aught at all.”

He said these things as he stood with the Squire

By the river's rim in the fields of clover,

While the stream flow'd on and the clouds flew

over,

With the sun tangled in and the fringes afire.

So the squire lean'd with a kindly glory To humor his guest, and to hear his story; For his guest had gold, and he yet was clever, And mild of manner; and, what was more, he, In the morning's ramble had praised the kine, The clover's reach and the meadows fine, And so made the Squire his friend forever.

His brow was brown'd by the sun and

weather,

And touch'd by the terrible hand of time;
His rich black beard had a fringe of rime,
As silk and silver inwove together.

There were hoops of gold all over his hands,
And across his breast, in chains and bands,
Broad and massive as belts of leather.

And the belts of gold were bright in the sun, But brighter than gold his black eyes shone From their sad face-setting so swarth and dunBrighter than beautiful Santan stone, Brighter even than balls of fire,

As he said, hot-faced, in the face of the Squire:-

"The pines bow'd over, the stream bent un

der,

The cabin was cover'd with thatches of palm Down in a canôn so deep, the wonder

Was what it could know in its clime but calm; Down in a canôn so cleft asunder

By sabre-stroke in the young world's prime, It look'd as if broken by bolts of thunder,

And burst asunder and rent and riven

By earthquakes driven that turbulent time
The red cross lifted red hands to heaven.

"And this in that land where the sun goes

down,

And gold is gather'd by tide and by stream, And maidens are brown as the cocoa brown, And a life is a love and a love is a dream; Where the winds come in from the far Ca

thay

With odor of spices and balm and bay,
And summer abideth with man alway,
Nor comes in a tour with the stately June,
And comes too late and returns too soon,

"She stood in the shadows as the sun went

down,

Fretting her hair with her fingers brown,
As tall as the silk-tipp'd tassel'd corn---
Stood watching as I weighed the gold

We had wash'd that day where the river roll'd;
And her proud lip curl'd with a sun-clime

scorn,

As she ask'd, 'Is she better or fairer than I?— She, that blonde in the land beyond,

Where the sun is hid and the seas are high— That you gather in gold as the years go by, And hoard and hide it away for her

As a squirrel burrows the black pine-burr ?

"Now the gold weigh'd well, but was lighter of weight

Than we two had taken for days of late,

So I was fretted, and brow a-frown,

I said, half-angered, with head held down-'Well, yes, she is fairer; and I loved her first; And shall love her last, come worst to the worst.'

"Her lips grew livid, and her eyes afire
As I said this thing; and higher and higher
The hot words ran, when the booming thunder
Peal'd in the crags and the pine-tops under,
While up by the cliff in the murky skies

It look'd as the clouds had caught the fire—
The flash and fire of her wonderful eyes!

"She turn'd from the door and down to the