{"product_id":"2940149577163","title":"Frontier Ballads (Illustrated)","description":"NOW, this is the simple, living faith of a humble heart and mind,\u003cbr\u003eDrunk up from the storm-brewed Western streams, breathed in \u003cbr\u003e          with the prairie wind.\u003cbr\u003eMy paints are crude and my pictures rude, but if some worth \u003cbr\u003e          they show\u003cbr\u003eWhich those may see who have thoughts as free, the rest may \u003cbr\u003e          let them go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hold that the things which make earth good may work most \u003cbr\u003e          harm in use\u003cbr\u003eIf the wit of men heed not the line 'twixt temperance and abuse,\u003cbr\u003eFor speech or mood, or drink or food may be a curse at will,\u003cbr\u003eThough, rightly weighed, they only aid the cup of life to fill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hold that the silent sea and plain, the mountain, wood, and \u003cbr\u003e          down.\u003cbr\u003eAre better haunts for the feet of men than the streets of the \u003cbr\u003e          roaring town,\u003cbr\u003eAnd that those who tread for the price of bread in the thronging \u003cbr\u003e          hives of toil\u003cbr\u003eWill stronger grow with the more they know of the kiss of the \u003cbr\u003e          virgin soil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hold that our sons should learn to love, not gods of gold and \u003cbr\u003e          greed,\u003cbr\u003eBut the virile men of brain and brawn who served our country's \u003cbr\u003e          need,\u003cbr\u003eAnd should more delight in a clean-cut fight, stout blade and \u003cbr\u003e          courage whole,\u003cbr\u003eThat the morbid skill of a critic's drill in the core of a sin-sick \u003cbr\u003e          soul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree stars that shine on the trail of life can make man's \u003cbr\u003e          pathway bright,\u003cbr\u003eAnd one is the strength of the living God, that stands in his \u003cbr\u003e          heart upright,\u003cbr\u003eAnd one is a noble woman's love, on which his heart may lean,\u003cbr\u003eAnd one is the sight of his country's flag, to keep his courage \u003cbr\u003e          keen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho knows the balm of the summer's calm or the chords of the \u003cbr\u003e          blizzard's hymn\u003cbr\u003eAnd finds not God in blast and breeze, his sense is strangely dim.\u003cbr\u003eFor he whose ear is attuned can hear the very planets sing\u003cbr\u003eThat the soul of man, by a God-wrought plan, is the heir of \u003cbr\u003e          creation's King.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho feels the joy of the golden days with her who shares his \u003cbr\u003e          mood\u003cbr\u003eIn the sun-washed wastes of the prairie hills or the breaks of \u003cbr\u003e          the tangled wood;\u003cbr\u003eWho has won the fate of a steel-true mate, real comrade, friend \u003cbr\u003e          and wife,\u003cbr\u003eHe tastes the kiss of Elysian bliss in instant, earthly life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho sees the gleam of the Stars and Stripes, on land or sea \u003cbr\u003e          displayed,\u003cbr\u003eAtilt in the reek of the battle-smoke or aloft o'er the marts of \u003cbr\u003e          trade—\u003cbr\u003eUnless his veins are the sluggish drains for the blood of a craven race.—\u003cbr\u003eHe will gain new life for a better strife, whatever the odds he \u003cbr\u003e          face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo that is the rede and the homely creed of one who has spelled \u003cbr\u003e          it forth\u003cbr\u003eIn the rivers' sweep and the splendors deep of the stars of the \u003cbr\u003e          hardy North;\u003cbr\u003eTo some, I ween, it may seem but mean; too short, too blunt, too plain,\u003cbr\u003eBut if those I touch who have felt as much, it will not have been \u003cbr\u003e          in vain.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Lost Leaf Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079752892656,"sku":"2940149577163","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940149577163_p0.jpg?v=1763719251","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940149577163","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}