taught them to call it, while he was with them. Tracing back the threads of his complex spiritual habit, as he was used in after years to do, Florian found that he owed to the place many tones of sentiment afterwards customary with 5 him, certain inward lights under which things most naturally presented themselves to him. The coming and going of travellers to the town along the way, the shadow of the streets, the sudden breath of the neighbouring gardens, the singular brightness of bright weather there, its singular Io darknesses which linked themselves in his mind to certain engraved illustrations in the old big Bible at home, the coolness of the dark, cavernous shops round the great church, with its giddy winding stair up to the pigeons and the bellsa citadel of peace in the heart of the trouble-all this acted 15 on his childish fancy, so that ever afterwards the like aspects and incidents never failed to throw him into a well-recognised imaginative mood, seeming actually to have become a part of the texture of his mind. Also, Florian could trace home to this point a pervading preference in himself for a kind of 20 comeliness and dignity, an urbanity literally, in modes of life, which he connected with the pale people of towns, and which made him susceptible to a kind of exquisite satisfaction in the trimness and well-considered grace of certain things and persons he afterwards met with, here and there, 25 in his way through the world. AN ESSAY OF RECENT LITERATURE RUDYARD KIPLING THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN1 Now the Four-way Lodge is opened, now the Hunting Winds are loose Now the Smokes of Spring go up to clear the brain; Now the Young Men's hearts are troubled for the whisper of the Trues, Now the Red Gods make their medicine again! Who hath seen the beaver busied? Who hath watched the black-tail mating? Who hath lain alone to hear the wild-goose cry? Who hath worked the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting, Or the sea-trout's jumping-crazy for the fly? He must go-go-go away from here! On the other side the world he's overdue. 'Send your road is clear before you when the old Spring fret comes o'er you, And the Red Gods call for you! So for one the wet sail arching through the rainbow round the bow, And for one the creak of snow-shoes on the crust; And for one the lakeside lilies where the bull-moose waits the cow, And for one the mule-train coughing in the dust. 1 Reprinted from Collected Verse of Rudyard Kipling, by permission of the author and of Doubleday, Page & Company and Methuen & Company, Ltd., publishers. Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath heard the birch-log burning? Who is quick to read the noises of the night? Let him follow with the others, for the Young Men's feet are turning To the camps of proved desire and known delight! Do you know the blackened timber-do you know that racing stream With the raw, right-angled log-jam at the end; And the bar of sun-warmed shingle where a man may bask and dream To the click of shod canoe-poles round the bend? 10 It is there that we are going with our rods and reels and traces, 15 20 To a silent, smoky Indian that we know— To a couch of new-pulled hemlock, with the starlight on our faces, Do For the Red Gods call us out and we must go! They must go-go, etc. you know the shallow Baltic where the seas are steep and short, Where the bluff, lee-boarded fishing-luggers ride? Do you know the joy of threshing leagues to leeward of your port On a coast you've lost the chart of overside? It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bale herJust one able 'long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance of drowning, while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call me out and I must go! He must go-go, etc. Do you know the pile-built village where the sago-dealers trade Do you know the reek of fish and wet bamboo? Do you know the steaming stillness of the orchid-scented glade When the blazoned, bird-winged butterflies flap through? To my little wailing lemurs, to my palms and flying-foxes, Do you know the world's white roof-tree-do you know that windy rift Where the baffling mountain-eddies chop and change? Do you know the long day's patience, belly-down on frozen drift, While the head of heads is feeding out of range? It is there that I am going, where the boulders and the snow lie, With a trusty, nimble tracker that I know. I have sworn an oath, to keep it on the Horns of Ovis Poli, He must go-go, etc. Now the Four-way Lodge is opened-now the Smokes of Council rise IC 15 Pleasant smokes, ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose 20 Now the girths and ropes are tested: now they pack their last supplies: Now our Young Men go to dance before the Trues! Who shall meet them at those altars-who shall light them to that shrine? Velvet-footed, who shall guide them to their goal? Unto each the voice and vision: unto each his spoor and sign Lonely mountain in the Northland, misty sweat-bath 'neath the Line And to each a man that knows his naked soul! White or yellow, black or copper, he is waiting, as a lover, Smoke of funnel, dust of hooves, or beat of trainWhere the high grass hides the horseman or the glaring flats discover Where the steamer hails the landing, or the surf-boat brings the rover Where the rails run out in sand-drift. . . Quick! ah, heave the camp-kit over! For the Red Gods make their medicine again! And we go-go-go away from here! On the other side the world we're overdue! 'Send the road is clear before you when the old Springfret comes o'er you, And the Red Gods call for you! 15 20 THE BELL BUOY1 They christened my brother of old— At the head of the belfry-stairs, Would I change with my brother a league inland? (Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not I! 1 Reprinted from Collected Verse of Rudyard Kipling, by permission of the author and of Doubleday, Page & Company and Methuen & Company, Ltd., publishers. |