Cross Roads | Page 3

Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each
date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your
annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO? The Project gratefully accepts contributions in
money, time, scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts,
royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution you

can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association /
Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
This etext was prepared by Judy Boss, Omaha, NE
CROSS ROADS
by MARGARET E. SANGSTER,
To My Father
NOTE
Some of the verses in this book have been printed by The Christian
Herald, Good Housekeeping, Pictorial Review, New Fiction Publishing
Company and the C. H. Young Publishing Company. I wish to
acknowledge, with thanks, permission to reprint them.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
WOOD MAGIC
WATERIN' THE HORSES
AT
DAWN
THE HAUNTED HOUSE
TO A PAIR OF GLOVES

PEAKS
LI'L FELLER
TO AN OLD SCHOOLHOUSE
THE
OLD SAILOR
THE RIVER AND THE TREE
AUTUMN
SONG
SCARLET FLOWERS
ON FIFTH AVENUE
FROM
A CITY WINDOW
THE LADY ACROSS THE COURT
TO A
PORCELAIN PUPPY DOG
COLORS
POSSESSION (A
TENEMENT MOTHER SPEAKS)
LIGHTS OF THE CITY

STEEL
MUSIC OF THE SLUMS
"BE OF GOOD CHEER!"

FROM MY ROOM
THE BALCONY SCENE
A BOWERY
PAWN-SHOP
SPRING IN THE CITY
LI'L EMPTY CLOSET

TWO LULLABYS
I DREAMED YOUR FACE
ANSWER

A BABY'S HANDS
ALL ALONG THE BROAD HIGHWAY


MY MOTHER
HEREDITY
APRIL
THE DESERT PATH
(SEVEN SONNETS)
SUMMER SONG
COMPREHENSION
(A MOTHER'S SONG)
SINGING ON THE MARCH
EASTER

RESURRECTION
THE QUEEN
FRAGMENTS
IT'S
LOTS OF FUN
VALENTINE
THE SACRIFICE
TO A
CERTAIN ROOM
OTHER DAYS
AT TWILIGHT
THERE
ARE SUCH WEARY LITTLE LINES
THREE SONGS OF
AWAKENING
IN A CANOE
CAPTIVE-HEART
EVENING
SONG
AFTER A DAY OF WAITING
INTANGIBLE
AT
FIRST SIGHT
FIVE SONNETS
FORGIVEN
THE
WRITING
AT PARTING
WHEN I AM OLD
THE REFUGE

TO DREAM ALONE
NOW I MAY SING OF SADNESS

WHEN WAR CAME
WHEN YOU WENT BY
IN
MEMORIAM
A PEASANT GIRL SINGS
TOGETHER

JIM-DOG
SIX SONNETS
AFTER PEACE
FROM THE
DECK OF A TRANSPORT
TIM -- MY BUNKIE
A PRAYER
FOR OUR BOYS RETURNING
PARIS

SONG FROM
FRANCE
FROM PARIS TO CHATEAU-THIERRY
A
RUINED CHURCH
CHILD FACES
AFTER HEARING
MUSIC COMING FROM A DEVASTATED FARMHOUSE

RETURN
THE PHOENIX
A PRAYER ON EASTER FOR
OUR BOYS KILLED IN ACTION
INDEPENDENCE DAY,
1919
SHADOWS
L'ENVOI
PREFACE
The candlelight sweeps softly through the room,
Filling dim surfaces with golden laughter,
Touching with mystery
each high hung rafter,
Cutting a path of promise through the gloom.
Slim little elves dance gently on each taper,
Wistful, small ghosts steal out of shrouded

corners --
And, like a line of vague enchanted mourners,
Great
shadows sway like wind-blown sheets of paper.
Gently as fingers drawn across your hair,
I see the yellow flicker of it creep --
And in a silence that is kin to
sleep,
I feel a world away from pain and care.
Roads stretch like arms across the world outside,
Roads reach to strife, to happiness, to fame --
Here, in the candlelight,
I speak your name,
Here we are at life's cross way, side by side!
OH, THERE ARE BROOKS THERE, AND FIELDS THERE
AND NOOKS
THERE --
NOOKS WHERE A SEEKER MAY FIND FOREST
FLOWERS;
BLUE IS THE SKY THERE, AND SOFT WINDS
CREEP BY THERE,
SINGING A SONG THROUGH THE LONG SUMMER HOURS.
WOOD MAGIC
The woods lay dreaming in a topaz dream,
And we, who silently roamed hand in hand,
Were pilgrims in a
strange, enchanted land,
Where life was love, and love was all
a-gleam.
And old remembered songs came back to greet
Our ears, from other worlds of long ago,
The worlds that we of earth
may seldom know --
And to those songs we timed our vagrant feet.
We did not speak, we did not need to say

The thought that lay so buried in our hearts --
The thoughts as sweet
as springtime rain, that
starts
The buds to blossoming in wistful May.
We did not need to speak, we could not speak,
The wonder words that we in silence knew --
We walked, as very
little children do,
Who feel, but cannot tell, the thing they seek.
Beyond a screen of bushes, bending low,
We knew that fair Titania lay at rest,
Her pillowed head upon her
lover's breast,
Her kisses swift as birds that come and go!
And underneath a wall of mottled stone,
We knew the sleeping beauty lay in state,
Entangled in a mist of tears,
to wait
The prince whose kiss would raise her to a throne.
Perhaps a witch with single flaming eye,
Was watching from beneath the hemlock tree;
And fairies that our
gaze might never see,
Laughed at us as we, hand in hand, crept by.
Laughed at us? No, I somehow think they knew
That you and I were kin to them that day!
I think they knew that we
were years away
From everything but make-believe, come true.
I think they knew that, singing through the air,
There thrilled a vague, insistent, harp-like call --
And that, where
woodbine blazed against the wall,
You held me close and kissed my
wind-tossed hair!
WATERIN' TH' HORSES

I took th' horses to th' brook -- to water 'em you know,
Th' air was cold with just a touch o' frost;
And as we went a-joggin'
down I couldn't help but
think,
O' city folk an' all the