for jeers,
Too lofty to permit of fears.

Ignoble is the fear of loss;
  The call of honour all demands!
What thought those generous hearts of dross
  Who sowed our races in these lands?
Who blames the Loyalist of pelf?
Champlain, what cared he for himself?

Ignoble is the dread of harm:—
  Expurge it for a nobler creed!
Until we smile at all alarm
  Poor will be our Canadian breed.
He may not count on victories
Who will not die as patriot dies.

Ignoble the consent to take
  The light opinions of our worth
That strangers condescending make
  Who own not better brains nor birth:—
Children of men who toiled and fought,
Build your own fate; respect your lot.

Arise! Live out a larger dream—
  Your nation's that ye may be man's:
Advance; invent; improve; the gleam
  Of dawn for all illume your plans!
Greece lived! the world requires again
The lives of nations and of men!

THE KEERLESS PARD.

No, I'm a disappointed man,
  Though I've acted fer the best;
But I tell ye, stranger, what it is—
  The Occident's not the West.

Have I got the hang of the dialeck?
  Ye're nearer New York ner I
An' ye've seen th' latest litteracher
  This lingo's laid-down by.

What is Bret Harte now givin' us?
  How's the Colorado tongue?
Bret wuz the pard that run the West
  When I wuz East—and young;—

That is to say, three months ago.
  But now I must be grey,
Fer I've been out here so long I've lost
  The hang o' the Western way.

Way down thar in the State o' Maine,
  In mild Skowhegan town,
I pastured as a tenderfoot
  An' the clerk o' Storeclothes Brown.

Till I got to readin' Roarin Camp
  An' about that Truthful James,
Buffalo Bill an' Bloody Gulch,
  An' pistol-an'-poker games,

An' the pleasure o' shootin' justices
  An' sheriffs deeputies
An' the oncomplainin' public
  An' the gineral mob likewise.

Then I—wich my name is Dangerous Jake—
  (Leastwise when took that way)
Sloped unappreciative Brown
  An' follered the wake o' day.

An' here am I in Bismarck Jug!
  Fer an inoffensive spree—
Puttin' some buckshot inter the leg
  Of a pagan-tail Chinee.

Wot is the good of our churches
  Ef the Mongol's goin' ter rule?
An' how kin ye shoot the redskin
  When they're givin' him beef and school?

What are the Rockies comin' too?
  Well, I've acted fer the best.
But the only remark I've got to make, is—
  The Occident's not the West

THE BATTLE OF LAPRAIRIE. (1691.)

A BALLAD.

I.

That was a brave old epoch,
  Our age of chivalry,
When the Briton met the Frenchman
  At the fight of La Prairie;
And the manhood of New England,
  And the Netherlander true
And Mohawks sworn, gave battle
  To the Bourbon's lilied blue.

II.

That was a brave old governor
  Who gathered his array,
And stood to meet, he knew not what
  On that alarming day.
Eight hundred, amid rumors vast
  That filled the wild wood's gloom,
With all New England's flower of youth,
  Fierce for New France's doom.

III.

And the brave old half five hundred!
  Their's should in truth be fame;
Borne down the savage Richelieu,
  On what emprise they came!
Your hearts are great enough, O few:
  Only your numbers fail,
New France asks more for conquerors
  All glorious though your tale.

IV.

It was a brave old battle
  That surged around the fort,
When D'Hosta fell in charging,
  And 'twas deadly strife and short;
When in the very quarters
  They contested face and hand,
And many a goodly fellow
  Crimsoned yon La Prairie sand.

V.

And those were brave old orders
  The colonel gave to meet
That forest force with trees entrenched
  Opposing the retreat:
"DeCalliere's strength's behind us
  And in front your Richelieu;
We must go straightforth at them;
  There is nothing else to do."

VI.

And then the brave old story comes,
  Of Schuyler and Valrennes
When "Fight," the British colonel called,
  Encouraging his men,
"For the Protestant Religion
  And the honor of our King!"—
"Sir, I am here to answer you!"
  Valrennes cried, forthstepping.

VII.

Were those not brave old races?—
  Well, here they still abide;
And yours is one or other,
  And the second's at your side,
So when you hear your brother say,
  "Some loyal deed I'll do,"
Like old Valrennes, be ready with
  "I'm here to answer you!"