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In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky,
In vain the snake slides through the creepers and
logs,
In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the
woods,
In vain the razor-billed auk sails far north to
Labrador,
I follow quickly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure
of the cliff.

192.I think I could turn and live with animals, they are
so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them sometimes an hour at a
stretch.

193.They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their
sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to
God,
No one is dissatisfied—not one is demented with the
mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived
thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole
earth.

194.So they show their relations to me, and I accept
them,
They bring me tokens of myself—they evince them
plainly in their possession.

195.I do not know where they get those tokens,