  THE MYSTIC MID-REGION CHAPTER I THE DESERT CHAPTER III CURIOUS PLANTS WHICH LIVE IN THE DESERT CHAPTER IV STRANGE DWELLERS OF THE DESERT CHAPTER V HUMANITY IN THE DESERT CHAPTER VI A FUNERAL IN THE REGION OF DEATH CHAPTER VII DESERT BASKET-MAKERS CHAPTER VIII SHIPS OF THE DESERT CHAPTER IX THE STORY OF A STREAK OF YELLOW CHAPTER XI OTHER MINERALS FOUND IN THE DESERT CHAPTER XII A REMARKABLE HARVEST-FIELD CHAPTER XIV THE MOUTH OF HADES CHAPTER XV DESERT MISCELLANY UNUSUAL AND PECULIAR FEATURES CHAPTER XVI JOURNALISM BELOW SEA-LEVEL CHAPTER XVII THE END OF THE DESERT By Copyright, 1904 Kingdom of solitude, thou desert vast, The keeper thou of secrets of the past, For what, O Desert, was thy land accurs'd? Thy rivers dried, thy fields consumed by thirst? Thy plains in mute appeal unfruitful lie Beneath a burning, stern, relentless sky That brings its showers of life-renewing rain Unto the mount, but ne'er unto the plain. What secret guardest thou, O Desert dread? What mystery hidest of the ages dead? Doth some strange treasure lie within thy breast That thou wouldst guard from man's most eager quest? Or doth there in thy solitude abide Some mystery that Nature fain would hide? Some secret of the great creative plan Too deep, too awful for the mind of man? O Desert, with thy hot, consuming breath, Whose glance is torture and whose smile is death, Realm of the dewless night and cloudless sun, Burn on until thine awful watch be done. Then may the shifting winds their off'rings bring— The yielding clouds their life-fraught dews to fling Upon thy yearning, panting, scorching breast, That with abundance thou at last be bless'd. So, where thy wasted sands now barren lie, Green fields may some day meet a smiling sky. Where now but lurks grim, ghastly, burning death, The violet may shed its fragrant breath. It hath been said—a sure, divine decree— That in the solitude shall gladness be; And, by that One from whom all goodness flows, That thou shalt bloom, O Desert, as the rose. A. J. B. |
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