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The
White Wampum
by
Emily Pauline Johnson
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THE
VAGABONDS
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WHAT
saw you in your flight to-day,
Crows, awinging your homeward way?
Went you far in carrion quest,
Crows, that worry the sunless west?
Thieves and villains, you shameless things!
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Black
your record as black your wings.
Tell me, birds of the inky hue,
Plunderous rogues—to-day have you
Seen with mischievous, prying eyes
Lands where earlier suns arise?
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Saw you a lazy beck between
Trees that shadow its breast in green,
Teased by obstinate stones that lie
Crossing the current tauntingly.
Fields abloom on the farther side
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With
purpling clover lying wide— [Page
30]
Saw you there as you circled by,
Vale-environed a cottage lie,
Girt about with emerald bands,
Nestling down in its meadow lands?
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Saw you this on your thieving raids?
Speak—you rascally renegades!
Thieved you also away from me
Olden scenes that I long to see?
If, O! crows, you have flown since morn
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Over
the place where I was born,
Forget will I, how black you were
Since dawn, in feather and character;
Absolve will I, your vagrant band
Ere you enter your slumberland. [Page 31]
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