And night dull tramping onward in the mud,

Buffeted about by caissons and guns and motor trucks;

Life was but mud and rain and weary men.

And then—one evening ere the march began,

I chanced to pause and gaze into the West,

And there was all the beauty of the world

Lying a-top the rain-bejewelled trees

In stripes of crimson, lavender, and blue,

And all the other colors known to man!

Then darkness came, and I was tramping northward once again,