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| I’VE bought a bit of broken land, a scant three-quarter-acre tract, | |
| A ragged hill-slope to the lake that ripples in the breeze; | |
| A little house to shelter us, with windows open to the sun, | |
| Where friendly do the stars lean down above the listening trees. | |
| And there I walk at dusk o’ day amid the rank persimmon bush, | 5 |
| While fireflies light their flickering lamps among the whispering grass: | |
| I hear the little frogs begin to chant their merry evening song, | |
| And sweetly shrill the cricket’s pipe salutes me as I pass. | |
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| For once I was a vagabond—I knew the smoke of eventide; | |
| And once I was a rover—how the hilltops sparkled then! | 10 |
| But now I am a freeholder, and this alone belongs to me, | |
| And all the shining earth beside belongs to other men. | |
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| So here I’ll have a garden-plot, and there a bush of lavender, | |
| And underneath the spreading oaks a hive or two of bees; | |
| With clambering roses on the fence, and there a clump of purple flags, | 15 |
| And figs and trellised scuppernongs and fragrant myrtle trees. | |
| The frogs shall sing my lullaby, the flaming dawns awaken me, | |
| The silver rain shall wet me and the wandering winds shall dry; | |
| And I will watch the seasons pass in green and golden pageantry | |
| And mark the armies of the night go marching through the sky. | 20 |
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| For once I was a wanderer with wind and star for company, | |
| And once I was the over-lord of all the clouds and trees. | |
| But now I am a husbandman, with spade and hoe companioned— | |
| And you may have the winding roads, and all the seven seas! | |
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