A sound as of a random cannonade

With rifles snarling down a skirmish line.

The geese went over. Every tree and vine

Was dotted thick with leaf-buds when they saw

The little river of Keyapaha

Grown mighty for the moment. Then they came,

One evening when all thickets were aflame

With pale green witch-fires and the windflowers blew,

To where the headlong Niobrara threw

His speed against the swoln Missouri’s flank