A hundred deaths, in his eager pride,

To bring to his Country at Washington

A message, for which, then, no one cared!

But Whitman could act as well as ride.

The United States must keep the Northwest.

He—whatever might say the rest—

Cared, and would colonize Oregon!

It was October, forty-two,

When the clattering hoof-beats died away

On the Walla Walla, that fateful day.