149

date: 1920-04-05

names-on-the-page: Colonel Willing; Mr. Yost

transcription: April 5, 1920 - Page 9

Even came and the sun gave way
To a hot moon, yellow gleaming,
A hot moon, smiling with swelled lips
Down upon the stretching sands
And the bats and the jackals crying
And now and then mayhap, the shadow
Of a phantom camel, the beckoning
Of some tribesman's head cloth
As he slipped dreamwise yon.

And I followed the phantom of the shadow,
The little shadow scarce bigger
Than a palm. And it fell upon a pool
Fringed of palms where a lizard panted
And a camel lay with its long neck
Limp and its tongue forced to the drops, dead!
And I confronting this, knelt down
And forgot the sands and the vultures
And the phantoms and the hot moon,
In the sup, the cool sup unto which
The little shadow scarce bigger
Than a palm, had led me.

She followed with this for Colonel Willing:

-The Measure of a Man-

Show me thy lance.
Let me gaze upon thy shield.
Let me weigh thy glove,
And I laugh for they mean nothing.
He who sups a man's sup
Presenteth his hand bare, lets his shield
Rust and snaps his lance while he
Slaps his belly and laughs at the Earth!
I measure a man by his straddle
And the depth of his laughter,
Not by his swearin'
Or the weight of his trappings.

Following this she remarked:

"Aside labor in her splendid garments, wisdom wears short
petticoats."

"Apropos of what?" asked Mr. Yost.

Patience replied: "I sayed me the thing and like all dames,
they swing not the words 'pon a thong."

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