Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v7.djvu/567

1837-47] and Leander" tells better for his character than the anecdotes which survive.

I've seen ye, sisters, on the mountain-side,

When your green mantles fluttered in the wind;

I Ve seen your footprints on the lake's smooth shore,

Lesser than man's, a more ethereal trace;

I have heard of ye as some far-famed race,

Daughters of gods, whom I should one day meet,

Or mothers, I might say, of all our race.

I reverence your natures, so like mine

Yet strangely different, like but still unlike.

Thou only stranger that hast crossed my path,