You feel new hope, new courage for the day, For noble deeds and lofty plans,—be sure That this kind goddess by your couch has stood.
To Wakan thus she spake:—
"Great Spirit dread, Far Westward is thy palace high from whence Thou send'st me to refresh this arid plain. I caused my streams to flow through all this land, And on their banks I planted stately trees, And blooming shrubs, and climbing vines. With flowers
I gemmed the prairies o'er, and set the stars, My jewels, in the clear sky close and low. •
"Glad made the heart of every living thing As in some swiftly flowing stream I worked, Or in the gently falling dew, or oft In air above. I thus prepared the land To woo to its embrace the passers-by: And then by night I whispered soft and low In white man's ears in dreams, and bade him seek The promised Eldorado in the West.
"As through my land he passed in search of gold, I marked his path with flowers that sunward turned Their yellow disks f that he might know the way, When Fortune frowned upon him, to return Where kindly Nature, with unbounded wealth, Awaited patient, long-enduring toil.
"I warned the Red Man of his coming doom, — Of slow decay and death,—but bade him hope A Savior from the East, and happier life In distant lands towards the sunny South."
e On account of the rarity of the atmosphere in this Western country the stars can be seen in greater abundance, and much nearer the horizon than in other parts.
£ The trail of the early grold-hunters across the Western plains was long marked by sunflowers.
