Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/42

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34
Leaves of Grass.

My eyes settle the land—I bend at her prow, or shout
joyously from the deck.
 
52.The boatmen and clam-diggers arose early and
stopped for me,
I tucked my trowser-ends in my boots, and went and
had a good time;
You should have been with us that day round the
chowder-kettle.

53.I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in
the far-west—the bride was a red girl,
Her father and his friends sat near, cross-legged and
dumbly smoking—they had moccasons to their
feet, and large thick blankets hanging from their
shoulders;
On a bank lounged the trapper—he was dressed
mostly in skins—his luxuriant beard and curls
protected his neck,
One hand rested on his rifle—the other hand held
firmly the wrist of the red girl,
She had long eyelashes—her head was bare—her
coarse straight locks descended upon her voluptuous
limbs and reached to her feet.

54.The runaway slave came to my house and stopped
outside,
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the wood-
pile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw
him limpsy and weak,
And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and
assured him,