“没有必要再往前走了——那是耕种的边缘，”他们这么说，我也相信了——我开垦了我的土地，种下了我的庄稼——在小边境站盖了我的谷仓，系了我的栅栏，这个小边境站藏在山麓下，小路一直延伸到尽头。直到有一个像良心一样坏的声音，日夜不停地在一个永恒的低语中响起了没完没了的变化——“有些东西被隐藏了。去找吧。去看看山脉后面——有些东西在山脉后面丢失了。迷路了，等着你。去吧!”我就这样走了，已经不耐烦了。我从来没有告诉过我最近的邻居——我带着背包和小马偷偷走了——让他们在镇上喝酒;当我面对陡峭的山脉时，翻山越岭的信念似乎对我的工作毫无帮助。三月又三月，我在他们中间徘徊，绕过他们的侧翼，躲开他们的肩膀，匆匆赶路，希望能找到水，又因为没有草而往回走; Till I camped above the tree-line -- drifted snow and naked boulders -- Felt free air astir to windward -- knew I'd stumbled on the Pass. 'Thought to name it for the finder; but that night the Norther found me -- Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies; so I called the camp Despair. (It's the Railway Cap today, though.) Then my whisper waked to hound me: "Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder! Go you there!" Then I knew, the while I doubted -- knew His Hand was certain o'er me. Still -- it might be self-delusion -- scores of better men had died -- I could reach the township living, but ... He knows what terrors tore me ... But I didn't ... but I didn't. I went down the other side. Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes, And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by; But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water drained to shallows, And I dropped again on desert-blasted earth and blasting sky ... I remember lighting fires; I remember sitting by them; I remember seeing faces, hearing voices through the smoke; I remember they were fancy -- for I threw a stone to try 'em. "Something lost behind the Ranges" was the only word they spoke. I remember going crazy. I remember that I knew it When I heard myself hallooing to the funny folk I saw. Very full of dreams that desert; but my two legs took me through it ... And I used to watch 'em moving with the toes all black and raw. But at last the country altered -- White Man's country past disputing -- Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills behind -- There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting, Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find. Thence I ran my first rough survey -- chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em -- Week by week I pried and sampled -- week by week my findings grew. Saul, he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found a kingdom! But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the worth of two! Up along the hostile mountains, where the hair-poised snowslide shivers -- Down and through the big fat marshes that the virgin ore-bed stains, Till I heard the mild-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers, And beyond the nameless timber saw illimitable plains! Plotted sites of future cities, traced the easy grades between 'em; Watched unharnessed rapids wasting fifty thousand head an hour; Counted leagues of water frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em -- Saw the plant to feed a people -- up and waiting for the power! Well, I know who'll take the credit -- all the clever chaps that followed -- Came a dozen men together -- never knew my desert fears; Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water holes I'd hollowed. They'll go back and do the talking. They'll be called the Pioneers! They will find my sites of townships -- not the cities that I set there. They will rediscover rivers -- not my rivers heard at night. By my own old marks and bearings they will show me how to get there, By the lonely cairns I builded they will guide my feet aright. Have I named one single river: Have I claimed one single acre? Have I kept one single nugget -- (barring samples?) No, not I! Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker. But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy. Ores you'll find there; wood and cattle; water-transit sure and steady, (That should keep the railway rates down;) coal and iron at your doors. God took care to hide that country till He judged His people ready, Then He chose me for His Whisper, and I've found it, and it's yours! Yes, your "