Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/353

352 "I hear sweet music far away

The mountain nymphs are calling me!"

He murmured. "How divine a lay,

O soul of mine, is wooing thee!"

"Coming!" he whispered and arose,

And gropingly reached forth a hand,

As if another's to enclose.

Some ghostly guidance to command —

And lo! into the heavy night,

As led by forms unseen, he fled

Far from the waning firelight

Into the canyons dark and dread.

'Twas years ago, but trace or track

Of him has never yet been found.

For Echo only answered back

The hunter's call and baying hound;

Forever lost untract, unseen,

In the upheaved and wild Cascades,

Forever lost, untract, unseen,

A shadow now among the shades.

From some snow-wreathed and shining peak

His soul swam starward long ago.

And now no more we vainly seek

The secret of his fate to know;

While fires of sunset and of dawn

Flame red and fade on many a height,

The mystery will not be withdrawn

From him, long lost from human sight.

And yet I sometimes sit and dream

Of him, my schoolmate and my friend,

As wand'ring where bright waters gleam,

In some sweet life that has no end —

Within the Cascades' inner walls,

Where nymphs, beyond all fancy fair,

Soothe him with siren madrigals,

And deck him with their golden hair.