Within the door; I turned to greetSpring's gayest cavalier, but JimWho stood there balanced in the dimHalf-light waved me away from him.And then I saw how terror streakedHis eyes, and how a red flow leakedAnd slid from cheek to chin. His handStill grasped a knotted branch, and spannedIt fiercely, fondling it. At lastHe moved into the light, and castHis eyes about, as if to wrapIn one soft glance, before the trapWas sprung, all he saw mirrored there:All love and bounty; grace; all fair,All discontented days; sweet weather;Rain-slant, snow-fall; all things togetherWhich any man about to dieMight ask to have filmed on his eye,And then he bowed his haughty head,"The thing we feared has come," he said;"But put your ear down to the ground,And you may hear the deadly soundOf two-limbed dogs that bay for me.If any ask in time to beWhy I was parted from my breath,Here is your tale: I went to deathBecause a man murdered the spring.
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