AT MANITOU
At Manitou—at delectable Manitou!
Oh, oh, if I only just had a million or two
I would build a cottage—a cottage at Manitou.
Now in the sunshine, now in the shade,
Smoothly the train slides down the grade.
Plunging into tunnels as black as night,
Out again into the clear sunlight!
Curving around grassy hillsides warm and bright;
High above, a torrent as white as snow,
Dashing and splashing in the gorge below;
Nearing now a ruined fortress old and brown,
A Titian fortress by the demi-gods pulled down.
Passing by gay companies at wayside places,
Maidens and men, and youths’ and children’s faces,—
And oh, oh, everything is bright, everything is new!
In the beautiful village we are swiftly passing through!
Castles and cottages crowning the cliffs;
Castles and cottages nestling away down in the boulder drifts;
Castles and cottages perched on crags and peeping from splintered rifts.
Castles and cottages beneath and above,—
Cosy abodes,—bright as the bowers of love!
Oh, oh, if I only just had a million or two
I surely would build a cottage—a cottage at Manitou.