"I hear sweet music far away
The mountain nymphs are calling me!"
He murmured. "How divine a lay,
O soul of mine, is wooing thee!"
"Coming!" he whispered and arose,
And gropingly reached forth a hand,
As if another's to enclose.
Some ghostly guidance to command —
And lo! into the heavy night,
As led by forms unseen, he fled
Far from the waning firelight
Into the canyons dark and dread.
'Twas years ago, but trace or track
Of him has never yet been found.
For Echo only answered back
The hunter's call and baying hound;
Forever lost untract, unseen,
In the upheaved and wild Cascades,
Forever lost, untract, unseen,
A shadow now among the shades.
From some snow-wreathed and shining peak
His soul swam starward long ago.
And now no more we vainly seek
The secret of his fate to know;
While fires of sunset and of dawn
Flame red and fade on many a height,
The mystery will not be withdrawn
From him, long lost from human sight.
And yet I sometimes sit and dream
Of him, my schoolmate and my friend,
As wand'ring where bright waters gleam,
In some sweet life that has no end —
Within the Cascades' inner walls,
Where nymphs, beyond all fancy fair,
Soothe him with siren madrigals,
And deck him with their golden hair.
