The Walker of the Snow

THE WALKER OF THE SNOW

SPEED on, speed on, good master!

... The camp lies far away;

We must cross the haunted valley

Before the close of day.

How the snow-blight came upon me

I will tell you as we go,

— The blight of the Shadow-hunter,

Who walks the midnight snow.

To the cold December heaven

Came the pale moon and the stars,

As the yellow sun was sinking

Behind the purple bars.

The snow was deeply drifted

Upon the ridges drear,

That lay for miles around me

And the camp from which we steer.

'Twas silent on the hillside,

And by the solemn wood

No sound of life or motion

To break the solitude,

Save the wailing of the moose-bird

With a plaintive note and low,

And the skating of the red leaf

Upon the frozen snow.

And said I,—" Though dark is falling,

And far the camp must be,

- Yet my heart it would be lightsome,

If I had but company.

And then I sang and shouted,

Keeping measure as I sped,

To the harp twang of the snow-shoe

As it sprang beneath my tread;

Not far into the valley

Had I dipped upon my way,

When a dusky figure joined me,

In a capuchon of gray,

Bending upon the snow-shoes,

With a long and limber stride;

And I hailed the dusky stranger,

As we travelled side by side.

But no token of communion

Gave he by word or look,

And the fear chill fell upon me

At the crossing of the brook.

For I saw by the sickly moonlight,

As I followed, bending low,

That the walking of the stranger

Left no footmarks on the snow.

Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me,

Like a shroud around me cast,

As I sank upon, the snowdrift

Where the Shadow-hunter passed.

And the otter-trappers found me,

Before the break of day,

With my dark hair blanched and whitened

As the snow in which I lay.

But they spoke not as they raised me;

For they knew that in the night

I had seen the Shadow-hunter,

And had withered in his blight.

Mother Varushka speed us !

The sun is falling low,

— Before us lies the valley

Of the Walker of the Snow