Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, The

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"></SPAN></p> <h2> The Lone Trail </h2> <p><i>Ye who know the Lone Trail fain would follow it,<br/> Though it lead to glory or the darkness of the pit.<br/> Ye who take the Lone Trail, bid your love good-by;<br/> The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow till you die.</i><br/> <br/> The trails of the world be countless, and most of the trails be tried;<br/> You tread on the heels of the many, till you come where the ways divide;<br/> And one lies safe in the sunlight, and the other is dreary and wan,<br/> Yet you look aslant at the Lone Trail, and the Lone Trail lures you on.<br/> And somehow you're sick of the highway, with its noise and its easy needs,<br/> And you seek the risk of the by-way, and you reck not where it leads.<br/> And sometimes it leads to the desert, and the tongue swells out of the mouth,<br/> And you stagger blind to the mirage, to die in the mocking drouth.<br/> And sometimes it leads to the mountain, to the light of the lone camp-fire,<br/> And you gnaw your belt in the anguish of hunger-goaded desire.<br/> And sometimes it leads to the Southland, to the swamp where the orchid glows,<br/> And you rave to your grave with the fever,<br/> and they rob the corpse for its clothes.<br/> And sometimes it leads to the Northland, and the scurvy softens your bones,<br/> And your flesh dints in like putty, and you spit out your teeth like stones.<br/> And sometimes it leads to a coral reef in the wash of a weedy sea,<br/> And you sit and stare at the empty glare where the gulls wait greedily.<br/> And sometimes it leads to an Arctic trail,<br/> and the snows where your torn feet freeze,<br/> And you whittle away the useless clay, and crawl on your hands and knees.<br/> Often it leads to the dead-pit; always it leads to pain;<br/> By the bones of your brothers ye know it, but oh, to follow you're fain.<br/> By your bones they will follow behind you,<br/> till the ways of the world are made plain.<br/> <br/> <i>Bid good-by to sweetheart, bid good-by to friend;<br/> The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow to the end.<br/> Tarry not, and fear not, chosen of the true;<br/> Lover of the Lone Trail, the Lone Trail waits for you.</i><br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />