Collected Verse Book

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...rifle, that shoots so fast and true, But--pay, and I lift my bandage and show what the Bear can do!" (Flesh like slag in the furnace, knobbed and withered and grey--Matun, the old blind beggar, he gives good worth for his pay.)"Rouse him at noon in the bushes, follow and press him hard--Not for his ragings and roarings flinch ye from Adam-zad. "But (pay, and I put back the bandage) this is the time to fear, When he stands up like a tired man, tottering near and near; When he stands up as pleading, in wavering, man-brute guise, When he veils the hate and cunning of the little, swinish eyes; "When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer, That is the time of peril--the time of the Truce of the Bear!" Eyeless, noseless, and lipless, asking a dole at the door, Matun, the old blind beggar, he tells it o'er and o'er; Fumbling and feeling the rifles, warming his hands at the flame, Hearing our careless white men talk of the morrow's game; Over and over the story, ending as he began:--"There is no truce with Adam-zad, the Bear that looks like a man I" THE PEACE OF DIVES 1903 1 HE Word came down to Dives in Torment where he lay: "Our World is full of wickedness, My Children maim and slay,"And the Saint and Seer and Prophet "Can make no better of it "Than to sanctify and prophesy and pray. "Rise up, rise up, thou Dives, and take again thy gold, "And thy women and thy housen as they were to thee of old. "It may be grace hath found thee "In the furnace where We bound thee, "And that thou shalt bring the peace My Son foretold." Then merrily rose Dives and leaped from out his fire, And walked abroad with diligence to do the Lord's desire; And anon the battles ceased, A...