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Rh Dark pines and stately firs of lordly height

Enclosed this hidden glade so strangely bright;

While sounds of gently murmuring waters heard

Mingled their tones with those of sweet-voiced bird:

The plaintive whip-poor-will, the turtle dove,—

A song of mingled joy and pain and love.

This was the "Garden of the Gods," where meet,—

When slow-revolving cycles are complete,—

The Guardian Spirits of this Western plain:

To give to him by whose command they reign,

Account if they their trust have well fulfilled,

And governed all things as their Master willed.

And first Heyokah from the North spake forth:

"Wakonda, mighty one, to thee I bow.

Upon my mountains high, the pole star near,

I dwell alone and rule the seasons there.

"Far South, from Britain's country on the North,

And Westward to the Rocky Mountains' top,

There stretched of old a prairie vast and wide, Rh