WHEN LITTLE SISTER CAME
by Joaquin Miller
e dwelt in the woods of the Tippecanoe,- In a lone lost cabin, with never a view
- Of the full day's sun for a whole year through.
- With strange half hints through the russet corn
- We children were hurried one night. Next morn
- There was frost on the trees, and a sprinkle of snow,
- And tracks on the ground. Three boys below
- The low eave listened. We burst through the door,
- And a girl baby cried,-and then we were four.
- We were not sturdy, and we were not wise
- In the things of the world, and the ways men dare.
- A pale browed mother with a prophet's, eyes,
- A father that dreamed and looked anywhere.
- Three brothers-wild blossoms, tall f'ashioned as men
- And we mingled with none, but we lived as when
- The pair first lived ere they knew the fall;
- And, loving all things, we believed in all.
- Ah! girding yourself and throwing your strength
- On the front of the forest that stands in mail,
- Sounds gallant, indeed, in a pioneer's tale,
- But, God. in heaven! the weariness
- Of a sweet soul banished to a life like this!
- This reaching of weary-worn arms full length;
- This stooping all day to the cold stubborn soil—
- This holding the heart! it is more than toil!
- What loneless of heart! what wishings to die
- In that soul in the earth, that was born for the sky!
- We parted wood-curtains, pushed westward and we,
- Why, we wandered and wandered a half year through,
- We tented with herds as the Arabs do,
- And at last sat down by the sundown sea.
- Then there in that sun did my soul take fire!
- It burned in its fervor, thou Venice, for thee!
- My glad heart glowed with the one desire
- To stride to the front, to live, to be!
- To strow great thoughts through the world as I went,
- As God sows stars through the firmament.