Low over leagues of frost-enchanted plain,

Saw Glass upon his pilgrimage again,

Northbound as hunter for the keelboat’s crew.

And many times the wide autumnal blue

Burned out and darkened to a deep of stars;

And still they toiled among the snags and bars—

Those lean up-stream men, straining at the rope,

Lashed by the doubt and strengthened by the hope

Of backward winter—engines wrought of bone

And muscle, panting for the Yellowstone,