"
"Ah, is this true? Do you lodge me close to yourself like this? How do
you know that I am not a murderer?"
"That is the concern of the good God. Good night, brother. Good night."
FOOTNOTE:
[78] An adaptation from "Les Miserables," by Lucy Dean Jenkins.
LASCA
ANONYMOUS
I want free life, and I want fresh air;
And I sigh for the canter after the cattle,
The crack of the whips like shots in a battle,
The mellay of horns and hoofs and heads
That wars and wrangles and scatters and spreads;
The green beneath and the blue above,
And dash and danger, and life and love.
And Lasca!
Lasca used to ride
On a mouse-gray mustang close to my side,
With blue _serape_ and bright-belled spur;
I laughed with joy as I looked at her.
Little knew she of books or of creeds;
An _Ave Maria_ sufficed her needs;
Little she cared, save to be by my side,
To ride with me, and ever to ride,
From San Saba's shore to Lavaca's tide.
She was as bold as the billows that beat,
She was as wild as the breezes that blow;
From her little head to her little feet
She was swayed in her suppleness to and fro
By each gust of passion; a sapling pine,
That grows on the edge of a Kansas bluff,
And wars with the wind when the weather is rough
Is like this Lasca, this love of mine.
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