File:Image from page 17 of "Blood for blood; a legend of the "big elm tree,"" (1906).jpg

English: Identifier: bloodforbloodleg00ball

Title: Blood for blood; a legend of the "big elm tree," Year: 1906 (1900s) Authors: Ballard, Granville Mellen Subjects: Publisher: Indianapolis, The Hollenbeck press Contributing Library: The Library of Congress Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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8

BLOOD FOR BLOOD
"A BALLAD OF THE BIG ELM TREE"

Red was the sun in autumn,
And the sumacs berries were red;
The sky had a trace of gray low down,
With a blend of blue overhead.

The goldenrod was flowerless,
The alders leaves were gone,
And the crown of the oak and the maple
Were turning yellow and brown.

From caverns came the west-wind,
Where slept her fairy clan,
And over the strings of natures harp
Her nimble fingers ran.

She played, and the nervous aspen
Laughed, while the beech tree slept,
And the tulip tree and the walnut
In purple and russet wept.

It was a mournful music—
A dirge for falling leaves—
A solace for saddened hearts that bore
The burden of garnered sheaves.

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Text Appearing After Image:

10

Such was the mellow season
From mountain range to the sea,
When Arrow-Head, Elk and Eagle-Eye sat
Under the "Bigg Elm Tree."

Sad and sullen they sat,
Dreamers at noon of day—
They looked intently at the earth,
But neither a word did say.

From noon till night they sat
Under the "Big Elm Tree,"
Then Arrow-Head, chief of the Delawares,
Stood up, and thus spake he:

"Brothers, this day weve passed
In sorrow for the dead;
'Blood for blood 'was the olden law
That turned our fathers red.

"Swift as the fallow deer
I vow to speed away,
Nor heed the elk nor the buffalo,
Till I the pale-face slay.

He knit his brow in wrath—
He scowled on earth and sky,
And the hot revenge that warmed his blood
Shot fire from his eye.

11

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