![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Sam_Walter_Foss.jpg\" "\\"Sam_Walter_Foss\\"")
<\/a>(a new hampshire librarian)\n(NH 1858-1911)<\/strong><\/p>\n
The Calf-Path<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n One day, through the primeval wood,<\/p>\n A calf walked home, as good calves should;<\/p>\n But made a trail all bent askew,<\/p>\n A crooked trail as all calves do.<\/p>\n Since then three hundred years have fled,<\/p>\n And, I infer, the calf is dead.<\/p>\n But still he left behind his trail,<\/p>\n And thereby hangs my moral tale.<\/p>\n The trail was taken up next day,<\/p>\n By a lone dog that passed that way.<\/p>\n And then a wise bell-wether sheep,<\/p>\n Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep;<\/p>\n And drew the flock behind him too,<\/p>\n As good bell-wethers always do.<\/p>\n And from that day, o’er hill and glade.<\/p>\n Through those old woods a path was made.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And many men wound in and out,<\/p>\n And dodged, and turned, and bent about;<\/p>\n And uttered words of righteous wrath,<\/p>\n Because ’twas such a crooked path.<\/p>\n But still they followed – do not laugh –<\/p>\n The first migrations of that calf.<\/p>\n And through this winding wood-way stalked,<\/p>\n Because he wobbled when he walked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This forest path became a lane,<\/p>\n that bent, and turned, and turned again.<\/p>\n This crooked lane became a road,<\/p>\n Where many a poor horse with his load,<\/p>\n Toiled on beneath the burning sun,<\/p>\n And traveled some three miles in one.<\/p>\n And thus a century and a half,<\/p>\n They trod the footsteps of that calf.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The years passed on in swiftness fleet,<\/p>\n The road became a village street;<\/p>\n And this, before men were aware,<\/p>\n A city’s crowded thoroughfare;<\/p>\n And soon the central street was this,<\/p>\n Of a renowned metropolis;<\/p>\n And men two centuries and a half,<\/p>\n Trod in the footsteps of that calf.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each day a hundred thousand rout,<\/p>\n Followed the zigzag calf about;<\/p>\n And o’er his crooked journey went,<\/p>\n The traffic of a continent.<\/p>\n A Hundred thousand men were led,<\/p>\n By one calf near three centuries dead.<\/p>\n They followed still his crooked way,<\/p>\n And lost one hundred years a day;<\/p>\n For thus such reverence is lent,<\/p>\n To well established precedent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A moral lesson this might teach,<\/p>\n Were I ordained and called to preach;<\/p>\n For men are prone to go it blind,<\/p>\n Along the calf-paths of the mind;<\/p>\n And work away from sun to sun,<\/p>\n To do what other men have done.<\/p>\n They follow in the beaten track,<\/p>\n And out and in, and forth and back,<\/p>\n And still their devious course pursue,<\/p>\n To keep the path that others do.<\/p>\n They keep the path a sacred groove,<\/p>\n Along which all their lives they move.<\/p>\n But how the wise old wood gods laugh,<\/p>\n Who saw the first primeval calf!<\/p>\n Ah! many things this tale might teach –<\/p>\n But I am not ordained to preach.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Winter \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Garden Planning Moon Tom Crane sent out an e-mail that contained many different photographs of paths and trails. Then Bill Schmidt sent out this poem. \u00a0I love it. \u00a0Not always great prosody, but the concept? \u00a0Wow. Read … Continue reading The Wise Old Wood Gods Laugh<\/span>