Snug ease, the pleasant tale, the merry mood,

And took the bare, foot-sounding solitude

Northwestward. Long they watched him from the Post,

Skied on a bluff-rim, fading like a ghost

At gray cock-crow; and hooded in his breath,

He seemed indeed a fugitive from Death

On whom some tatter of the shroud still clung.

Blank space engulfed him.

Now the moon was young

When he set forth; and day by day he strode,