IdUllS 
HBLac/c £/ioi 
c^HlixcIlex 
"WAITING” 
Serene, I fold my hands and wait, nor care for wind nor tide nor sea; 
I rave no more against time or fate, for lo! my own shall come to me. 
I stay my haste, I make delays, for what avails this eager place? , 
I stand amid the eternal ways, and what is mine shall know my face. 
Asleep, awake, by night or day, the friends I seek are seeking me, 
No wind can drive my bark astray nor change the tide of destiny. 
What.matter if I stand alone? I wait with joy the coming years; 
My heart shall reap where it has sown and garner up its-fruit of tears. 
V 
The waters know their own, and draw the brook that springs in yonder 
height; 
So flows the good with equal law unto the soul of pure delight. 
The stars come nightly to the sky; the tidal wave unto the sea; 
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, can keep my own away from me. 
That thought, “My Own Shall Come To Me,” is the hub of Burrough's 
philosophy. He became convinced as a young man that his own would com.; 
to him—if he. hustled sufficiently-^and events proved him to be absolutely 
correct. Fame came to him, arid fortunerand friends and wisdom. Under¬ 
standing came to him df everything that runs or flys or creeps. He could 
converse with birds or beasts. Nature returned his love of her and bestowed 
vision and peace and serenity upon him. 
In a strenuous 1 age, when the race to get ahead of the other fellow 
has ruined our digestions, John Burroughs stayed sweet and sane and calm. 
He waited for his own to come to him. The most strenuous man in America 
was one of those who “came to him.” Theodore Roosevelt, when he was 
President, did not command him to the White House. No, he steamed up 
the Hudson on the Presidential yacht to meet his beloved “John o’ Birds,” 
on his hilltop retreat. The greatest inventive genius in the world, Thomas 
A. Edison, came to him. The railroad builder, E. H. Harriman, came to him, 
and carried him off to Alaska in a special train.. The industrial wizard, 
Henry Ford, came to him. These were his friends and playmates. They all 
came to “Slabsides,” his bark-covered cabin, to sit at his feet and gain 
wisdom. Everybody came'. In these days when the pace of life is so swift 
and the game of grab so quick and bitter, we need the message of John 
Burroughs. 
