The Log School-House on the Columbia Part 28

VIII.

That spring, a man with frozen feet Came to the marble halls of state, And told his mission but to meet The chill of scorn, the scoff of hate.

"Is Oregon worth saving?" asked The treaty-makers from the coast; And him the Church with questions tasked, And said, "Why did you leave your post?"

Was it for this that he had braved The warring storms of mount and sky?

Yes!--yet that empire he had saved, And to his post went back to die-- Went back to die for others' sake, Went back to die from Was.h.i.+ngton, Went back to die for Walla-Walla, For Idaho and Oregon.

IX.

At fair Walla-Walla one may see The city of the Western North, And near it graves unmarked there be That cover souls of royal worth; The flag waves o'er them in the sky Beneath whose stars are cities born, And round them mountain-castled lie The hundred states of Oregon.

VI.

MOUNT SAINT HELENS.

We refer to the snowy range to the west, which terminates in the great dome that now bears that name. There was once a great lava-flood in the Northwest, and Mount Hood, Mount Adams, Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Tacoma (Rainier) are but great ash-heaps that were left by the stupendous event.