10

The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
Ya honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like
an invitation;
The pert suppose it is meaningless ^{has no meaningless} but I listen better, ^closer
I find it has its place and sign up there towards
the November sky.
The clawed cat of the forest, the deer ^{sharphoofed moose of the north, the cat on the housesill,} the prairie-dog
The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
The brood of the turkey-hen, and she with her
halfspread wings.
I see in them and myself the same old law.
The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred
affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.

I am enamored of growing outdoors.
Of men that ^{drivers of horses} live among cattle or taste of the
ocean or soil.
^{Of builders [illegible]} Of welders [several illegible words] ^{of the drivers of horses
.}I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
What is ^{nearest and} commonest and cheapest ^{and [illegible] and easiest} is Me,
Me going in for my chances,…spending
Spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first
that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to [illegible] my
good will,
Scattering it freely forever.
The pure contralto sings in the organloft,
The carpenter dresses his plank,….the tongue of his fore-plane
whistles its wild ascending lisp,
The married and unmarried children ride home to their
Thanksgiving dinner,
The pilot seizes the king-pin . . . . he heaves down with a strong