Prairie Folks.

Pioneers.

They rise to mastery of wind and snow;

They go like soldiers grimly into strife,

To colonize the plain; they plow and sow,

And fertilize the sod with their own life

As did the Indian and the buffalo.

Settlers.

Above them soars a dazzling sky,

In winter blue and clear as steel,

In summer like an Arctic sea

Wherein vast icebergs drift and reel

And melt like sudden sorcery.

Beneath them plains stretch far and fair,

Rich with sunlight and with rain;

Vast harvests ripen with their care

And fill with overplus of grain

Their square, great bins.

Yet still they strive! I see them rise

At dawn-light, going forth to toil:

The same salt sweat has filled my eyes,

My feet have trod the self-same soil

Behind the snarling plow.