Page:May-day and other pieces, Emerson, 1867.djvu/57

Rh On the east a bay makes inward to the land

Between two rocky arms, we climb the bank,

And in the twilight of the forest noon

Wield the first axe these echoes ever heard.

We cut young trees to make our poles and thwarts,

Barked the white spruce to weatherfend the roof,

Then struck a light, and kindled the camp-fire.

The wood was sovran with centennial trees,—

Oak, cedar, maple, poplar, beech and fir,

Linden and spruce. In strict society

Three conifers, white, pitch, and Norway pine,

Five-leaved, three-leaved, and two-leaved, grew thereby.

Our patron pine was fifteen feet in girth,

The maple eight, beneath its shapely tower.

'Welcome!' the wood god murmured through the leaves,—