Memories of Canada and Scotland, Speeches and Verses | Page 8

diadem,
And welcome now, no longer mute,
Tried hearts so
true and resolute!"
THE PRAIRIE ROSES.
The Noon-Sun prayed a prairie rose
To blanch for him her blossom's
hue,
But to the Plain all love she owes;
Beneath that mother's grass
she grew.
And sheltered by her verdant blades,
Their tints of green she made
her own;
But still the Sun sought out her shades
And said, "Be my
white bride alone!"
Then, sorrowing for his grievous pain,
Her sister loved the amorous
god,
And blushed, ashamed, as o'er the plain
His parting beams
illumed the sod.
So one sweet rose yet wears the green,
And one in sunset's crimson
glows;
Still one untouched by love is seen,
And one in conscious
beauty blows.
CREE FAIRIES.
"Did earth ever see
On thy prairie's line
Tribes older than thine,

Old Chief of the Cree?"
"Before us we know
Of none who lived here;
Our shafts bade them
go.
"But others have share
Of lake and of land,
A swift-footed band

No arrow can scare.
"Their coming has been
When flowers are gay;
On islet and bay

Their footprints are seen.

"There dance little feet
Light grasses they break;
Beneath the blue
lake
Must be their retreat.
"We listen, and none
Hears ever a sound;
But where, lily-crowned,

Floats the isle in the sun,
"Three children we see
Like sunbeams at play.
And, voiceless as
they,
Dogs bounding in glee.
"Of old they were there!
Ever young, who are these
Whom Death
cannot seize?
What Spirits of air?"
THE "QU'APPELLE" VALLEY.
Morning, lighting all the prairies,
Once of old came, bright as now,

To the twin cliffs, sloping wooded
From the vast plain's even brow:

When the sunken valley's levels
With the winding willowed stream,

Cried, "Depart, night's mists and shadows;
Open-flowered, we love
to dream!"
Then in his canoe a stranger
Passing onward heard a cry;

Thought it called his name and answered,
But the voice would not
reply;
Waited listening, while the glory
Rose to search each steep
ravine,
Till the shadowed terraced ridges
Like the level vale were
green.
Strange as when on Space the voices
Of the stars' hosannahs fell,

To this wilderness of beauty
Seemed his call "Qu'Appelle?
Qu'Appelle?"
For a day he tarried, hearkening,
Wondering, as he
went his way,
Whose the voice that gladly called him
With the
merry tones of day?
Was it God, who gave dumb Nature
Voice and words to shout to one

Who, a pioneer, came, sunlike,
Down the pathways of the sun?

Harbinger of thronging thousands,
Bringing plain, and vale, and
wood,
Things the best and last created,

Human hearts and
brotherhood!

Long the doubt and eager question
Yet that valley's name shall tell,

For its farmers' laughing children
Gravely call it "The Qu'Appelle!"
THE BLACKFEET
I.
Where the snow-world of the mountains
Fronts the sea-like world of
sward,
And encamped along the prairies
Tower the white peaks
heavenward;
Where they stand by dawn rose-coloured
Or
dim-silvered by the stars,
And behind their shadowed portals

Evening draws her lurid bars,
Lies a country whose sweet grasses

Richly clothe the rolling plain;
All its swelling upland pastures

Speak of Plenty's happy reign;
There the bison herds in autumn

Roamed wide sunlit solitudes,
Seamed with many an azure river

Bright in burnished poplar woods.
II.
Night-dews pearled the painted hide-tents,
"Moyas" named, that on
the mead
Sheltered dark-eyed women wearing
Braided hair and
woven bead.
Never man had seen their lodges,
Never warrior
crossed the slopes
Where they rode, and where they hunted
Imu
bulls and antelopes.
Masterless, how swift their riding!
While the
wild steeds onward flew,
From round breasts and arms unburdened

Freedom's winds their tresses blew.
Only when the purple shadows

Slowly veiled the darkening plain
Would they sorrow that the
Sun-god
Dearer loved his Alp's domain.
III.
Southward, nearer to the gorges
Whence the sudden warm winds
blow,
Shaking all the pine's huge branches,
Melting all the fallen
snow,
Dwelt the Séksika, the Blackfeet;
They whose ancestor,
endued,
With the dark salve's magic fleetness,

First on foot the deer

pursued.
Gallantly the Braves bore torture
While their Sun-dance
fasts were held,
While the drums beat, and the virgins
Saw the
pains by manhood quelled.
As each writhing form triumphant

Called on the Great Spirit's might,
On his son, whose voice in thunder

Summons airy hosts to fight.
IV.
"Star-Child," praised as bearing all things,
Praised as Brave who
never feared,
Young, but famed above his elders,
Chief to man and
maid endeared,
Went with comrades, quiver-harnessed,
O'er the
hills, and face to face,
Where the bright leaves trembled round them,

Found the fearless huntress race
Was it peace or was it warfare?

Starting back, their bows they drew,
But a mystic power compelled
them,
And no word, no arrow flew.
Nearer to each other drawing,

Strength and beauty beckoned "Peace,"
Each the other envious eyeing,

Jealous lest their hunt should cease!
V.
"They are strong; could not they aid us?"
Thought the maiden band
amazed;
"Conquered, these could well obey us!"
Dreamed the
warriors as they gazed.
Falsely answered cunning "Star-Child,"

Smiling as they slowly met,
While the women's frequent questions

Were to laughter's music set,
"Who is chief among you, tell us?"

"He is far! Is she your queen
With the shells and deer-teeth broidered,

Decked with sheen of gold between?"
"Yea; she slays the bear, the
grizzly:
Light her empire on us lies;
With the love she rules her
courser
Guides and guards us 'Laughing Eyes'!"
VI.
Vaunted then the men their "Star-Child:"
"Peerless soldier, keen-eyed
king!
From the girl he weds shall heroes
Worthy war-god's lineage

spring.
Know ye not how old enchantment
Saw his storm-born sire
appear,
Armed,