Classic Poem

She smiled, glad that he was strong and young,
And one blood with the weather.

But she saw the shadow of the tragic child in his eyes …

“Down!” she cried again, and beat the dogs down with the thong …
“So! They will not hurt you” …

He laughed shortly:

“Let me rein them in and follow them!” he said …

“Not both of them,” she laughed …
“Each, one: I love the tug as of a wind on a sail.”

So he took one of the dogs, and standing very near her
Saw the health glowing in her and poured like strong sun through her eyes …
And his sickness was drawn to this laughing health …
He gloried in her … they gloried in each other.

So swiftly they slipped and slid and were pulled, each on the leash,
Into the lower gale-loud woods.