138 THE LOG OF THE SUN 



hour's tramp, without even wotting our shoes, 

 may show as. Before we leave, hints of more 

 deeply hidden secrets of the marsh may perhaps 

 come to us. A swamp sparrow may show by its 

 actions that its nest is not far away; from the 

 depths of a ditch jungle the clatter of some rail 

 comes faintly to our ears, and the distant croak 

 of a night heron reaches us from its feeding- 

 grounds, guarded by the deeper waters. 



And what if behind me to westward the wall of the woods 



stands high? 

 The world lies east: how ample, the marsh and the sea and the 



sky! 

 A league and a league of marsh-grass, waist-high, broad in the 



blade. 



Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and terminal sea? 



Somehow my soul seems suddenly free 



From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin. 



Sidney Lanier. 



