Have You?

Have you ever built a camp-fire at the closing of the day? Have you sat and watched the embers glowing red? With your scanty supper finished and the things all cleared away, Have you sat and smoked and thought about your bed? Of the bed you left behind you in the dwelling-place of man, In the much o’er-furnished room you knew of yore; Ere you sought the silent places where a fellow learns he can Do a lot of things he never did before? Have you ever spread a blanket down beneath the star-strewn skies? Rolled yourself within its cozy folds to sleep, At the base of mighty mountains, with their peaks that rise and rise? Have you known the age-old silence that they keep? Have you seen the red sun climbing up the eastern slope? Then know You will ne’er forget those rugged, happy days. What! You’ve never known the glory of the new-born day? Then go⁠— It’s a road that’s hard to travel—but it pays.