Page:Songs from Vagabondia (1897).djvu/21
This page has been validated.
A thirst like that of the Thirsty Sword,
And a jug of cider on the board;
And a jug of cider on the board;
An idle noon, a bubbling spring,
The sea in the pine-tops murmuring;
The sea in the pine-tops murmuring;
A scrap of gossip at the ferry;
A comrade neither glum nor merry,
A comrade neither glum nor merry,
Asking nothing, revealing naught,
But minting his words from a fund of thought,
But minting his words from a fund of thought,
A keeper of silence eloquent,
Needy, yet royally well content,
Needy, yet royally well content,
Of the mettled breed, yet abhorring strife,
And full of the mellow juice of life,
And full of the mellow juice of life,
A taster of wine, with an eye for a maid,
Never too bold, and never afraid,
Never too bold, and never afraid,
Never heart-whole, never heart-sick,
(These are the things I worship in Dick)
(These are the things I worship in Dick)
No fidget and no reformer, just
A calm observer of ought and must,
A calm observer of ought and must,
A lover of books, but a reader of man,
No cynic and no charlatan,
No cynic and no charlatan,
Who never defers and never demands,
But, smiling, takes the world in his hands,—
But, smiling, takes the world in his hands,—
Seeing it good as when God first saw
And gave it the weight of his will for law.
And gave it the weight of his will for law.
7