I had written a love song long before, and knew it by heart, for it was a song which I liked very much. I recited it to my mate, speaking in half-whispers so that the gamblers at the far end of the shack could not hear me.
"A LOVE SONG
"Greater by far than all that men know, or all that men see is this—
The lingering clasp of a maiden's hand and the warmth of her virgin kiss,
The tresses that cover the pure white brow in many a clustering curl,
And the deep look of honest love in the grey eyes of a girl.
"Because of that I am stronger than death and life is barren no more,
For otherwise wrongs that I hardly feel would sink to the heart's deep core,
For otherwise hope were utterly lost in the endless paths of wrong—
But only to look in her soft grey eyes—I am strong, I am strong!