Men of the farm and the forge and the carpenter’s bench and the engine;
Men from the counter and desk; and the teacher was there with his pupils;
There the bold-eyed firemen, the turbulent lads of the cities;
There the men of the shore,—they had left the broad nets and the fishing;
There the men of the axe,—they had left the tall trees in the forest.
What was it drew them away from their labor and love and contentment,
Buying and selling and scheming, and building, and yoking the oxen?
Made them willing to fling down Life, the mysterious jewel,
All the lovely and strange thing that it is, with the pleasant
Light of the kindly sun, and the sweet of the grass in the summer,