Knew the unmarked graves beneath the prairie sod.

It has watched the thin, gray dust-cloud

With the summer heat-haze blent,

And the glint below of swords and bridle-chains,

As some squad of blue-clad troopers,

Like a wolf-pack on the scent,

Trailed the fleeing travois' track across the plains.

It has seen the long-horned cattle

Take the bisons' pasture lands,

Seen the cornfields spread where once the wild grass stood,