Page Twenty-two 



Wv followod the chain of change; 

 I'ill there came a time in the hiw ot hfe 

 When over the nursing sod 

 The shadows broke, and the soul awoke 

 In a strange, dim dream of God. 



I was t hewed hke an Atiroch bull, 

 And tusked like the great Cave Bear; 

 And you, my sweet, from head to feet 

 Were gowned in your glorious hair. 

 Deep in the gloom of a fireless cave, 

 When the night fell o'er the plain. 

 And the moon hung red o'er the river bed, 

 We mumbled the bones of the slain, 



I flaked a flint to a cutting edge. 



And shaped it with brutish craft ; 



I })roke a shank from the woodland dank. 



And fitted it, head and haft. 



Then I hid me close^to the reedy tarn 



Where the mammoth came to drink; — 



Through brawn and bone I drove the stone. 



And slew him on the brink. 



Loud I howled tlirough the moonlit wastes, 



Loud answered our kith and kin; 



From west and east to the crimson feast 



The clan came trooping in. 



O'er joint and gristle and padded hoof 



We fought and clawed and tore, 



And, cheek by jowl, with many a growl, 



We talked the marvel o'er. 



I carved that fight on a reindeer bone, 



With rude and hairy hand; 



I pictured his fall on the cavern wall 



That men might understand. 



For we lived by blood and the right of might, 



