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 Learning to Teach
in an Age of Accountability
 Learning to Teach
in an Age of Accountability

Arthur T. Costigan
and
Margaret Smith Crocco

with
Karen Kepler Zumwalt

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS

2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any
other means, without prior written permission of the
publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers

10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Costigan, Arthur T.
Learning to teach in an age of accountability / Arthur T.
Costigan, Margaret Smith Crocco with Karen Kepler Zumwalt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-4707-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8058-4708-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Educational accountability—New York (State)—New York—

Case studies. 2. First year teachers—New York (State)—New
York—Case studies. 3. Education, Urban—New York (State)
—New York—Case studies. I. Crocco, Margaret. II. Zumwalt,
Karen Kepler, 1943– . III. Title.
LB2806.22.C67 2004
371.1—dc22 2004043633
CIP

ISBN 1-4106-1095-0 Master e-book ISBN

Contents

Preface ix

Part I: Choosing to Become a Teacher

Introduction 1

1 Teaching Is Messy Work 7

An Inquiry-Oriented Approach to Learning to Teach 10
A Vision of Best Practice in Teacher Education 12
An Inquiry Oriented Approach 12
A Collaborative Approach 12
Narratives in the First Person 13
Growth and Development in the Brave New World
of Teaching 18
Good Teaching and Good Teacher Education 21
References 22

2 High-Stakes Teaching 25
The Pressures of Accountability 27
The Intensification of Teaching 28
Teacher Turnover and Teacher Shortage 31
Teacher Quality 34
Danger Signs on the Educational Highway 37
References 39
Going Further and Checking It Out 43
v
vi CONTENTS

Part II: Teaching as an Autobiographical Act

Introduction 47

3 Vocation? Profession? Or Just a Job? 49

Friends and Family 52
Teaching Motivations 54
New York City Metropolitan Schools 56
Making the Move Into Teaching 58
References 60

4 “Having a Life” as a New Teacher 63

The First Career Crisis 65
“Repairing the World” 66
The Emotional Life of Teaching 68
Tales of Commitment and Caring 70
“Don’t Women Have Career Options Other Than
Teaching These Days?” 72
Novices and Veterans: Perfect Together 74
References 76

5 From Noble Ideals to Everyday Realities 79

Theory to Practice 81
Teaching Is Tough Work 85
Epiphanies About the Demands and Rewards
of Teaching 86
The Three Most Important Things in Teaching 88
The “Dailiness” of Teaching 90
Don’t Smile Until Christmas? 92
Heterogeneity and Accountability 94
Crisis and Reform 95
References 98
Going Further and Checking It Out 101

Part III: Encountering Classrooms and Schools

Introduction 105

6 Lessons, Kids, and Classrooms 109

Where Do Good Lessons Come From? 110
Classroom Management 113
CONTENTS vii

Management and Control Are About More Than

Management and Control 116
Educational Coursework and School Curriculum 120
References 125

7 Accountability, Autonomy, and Responsibility 127

in the Classroom
Accountability in Schools 128
Who’s to Blame? 133
Lost Languages: The Unintended Consequences
of the Accountability Movement 137
The Ripple Effect of High-Stakes Testing 141
Academic Content Inadequacies 143
References 146

8 Teaching Is Not Just What Happens When You Close 147

the Classroom Door
School Relationships—For Better or Worse 149
Scripted Lessons 156
Finding Room for Decision Making 160
The Parent Trap 164
References 168

9 The Global Village of the Classroom 169

Crossing Cultural Divides 171
Diversity Finds the Teacher 174
Class in the Classroom 177
Sorting Students in Modern High Schools 179
Girl (and Boy) Talk 183
Moving Toward a Curriculum of Peace 186
References 190
Going Further and Checking It Out 191

Part IV: New Teachers as Decision Makers

Introduction 195

10 The Past Is Never Past 197

Judicial and Legislative Influences on Schooling 198
The Tyranny of the Local 202
Where Should I Teach? 203
viii CONTENTS

Appreciating the Possibilities of Urban Teaching 205

Desperately Seeking Support 205
Rich and Poor Schools 208
Hitting Bottom 209
The Consequences of School Segregation 211
References 215

11 Teaching as a Political Act 219

Teachers as Agents of Change 221
Recognizing Opportunities and Acting on Them 226
Making Decisions About the Teaching Life 230
Moving Beyond Misconceptions 233
References 237
Going Further and Checking It Out 239

Part V: Confronting the Age of Accountability

Introduction 245

12 Choosing to Make a Difference 247

Karen K. Zumwalt

Author Index 259

Subject Index 263

Preface

This book documents the “brave new world” of teacher, administrator,

school, and student accountability that has swept across the United States
over the last 10 years. The particular vantage point taken by this book is the
perspective of dozens of new teachers trying to make their way through
their first months and years working in schools in the New York City metro-
politan area. Novices all, these new teachers encounter schools rife with
problems related to overcrowded and underresourced classrooms, immi-
grant students who speak little English, acute literacy challenges, burnt-out
administrators and teachers, chaotic operations, and, in some cases, vio-
lence. Although these schools are clearly marked by their urban setting, ex-
perienced teachers and teacher educators all know that such problems are
by no means unique to city schools, having found their way to some degree
into most suburban and rural schools as well. What makes this portrait dif-
ferent from past accounts of young, White teachers in urban schools are the
stories of their encounters with the new culture of accountability and the
strategies they develop for coping, and even succeeding, within such de-
manding settings.
The portrait painted here is not a pretty one, but it is realistic. The book
relies on excerpts from lengthy interviews done with scores of new teach-
ers over the last 3 years who were graduating from two large teacher edu-
cation programs in New York City and beginning work in middle and
secondary schools in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The pas-
sages from those interviews incorporated into the book vividly document
the difficult circumstances in which many teachers, novice and veteran,
pursue their teaching careers. We believe that this book makes a singular
contribution to the expanding educational literature on new teachers; we
ix
x PREFACE

also believe it is unique in its extensive portrayal of new teachers’ encoun-

ters with issues of accountability. The theme of accountability via high-
stakes testing pervades each chapter in this book. Readers may find this
recurrent theme amounting to a drumbeat of bad news throughout the
book. Still, as Karen Zumwalt points out in the final chapter, possibilities
for good teaching do exist within classroom climates shaped by unprece-
dented pressures on new teachers.
It is important to note that the book is not just one more addition to the
“gloom and doom” genre of urban education. Instead, what the reader will
encounter here are portraits of resilience alongside stories of turmoil; that is,
new teachers facing the realities of contemporary schooling squarely and
finding ways to succeed despite the challenging circumstances they confront.
We have written this book for all those interested in the contemporary
world of teaching, especially teaching in a major metropolitan area in the
United States. Primarily, however, our audience will be those preparing to
teach. When we address ourselves to “you”—the reader—we mean the pro-
spective and practicing teachers who, we hope, will engage most deeply and
personally with the issues presented in this book.
We believe it is crucial for all school teachers and administrators to think
through the issues raised in this book and their reactions to these issues. As
Part I amply demonstrates, teacher retention looms large as a contributing
factor to the so-called “teacher shortage” these days. Our immodest hope is
that this book will help preview the real-life circumstances of beginning
teachers today so that teacher education students can better prepare them-
selves to deal with the challenges lying ahead. “Rehearsing” responses to
these circumstances may prevent new teachers from becoming discouraged
by them and departing the profession after only a few years.
Secondarily, we address this book to other teacher educators. Document-
ing the challenges of the educational field in which we work is vital. Stories
of accountability and its toll in urban and suburban schools are vital consid-
erations for beginning teachers and teacher educators, the public—espe-
cially parents of school children—as well as politicians and policymakers.
Teacher educators do their work at the crossroads of many competing influ-
ences; of late, their own legitimacy and utility have been challenged by
many prominent figures in the federal government. Indeed, over the last
several years, the influence of the federal government has grown markedly.
In a democratic society, debate over education and its providers is to be ex-
pected. Nevertheless, accusations against the profession by policymakers
and the press are often made absent any real understanding of the work of
teacher education. Moreover, some of the profession’s critics fail to ac-
knowledge the underresourced conditions in which so much educational
work is done, especially the work of meeting new state and federal man-
dates these days.
PREFACE xi

OVERVIEW

Learning to Teach in an Age of Accountability is organized into five parts: Part I

and Part V engage the “big ideas” concerning teacher research: what we
know and where that leads us. In other words, Part I introduces research on
teaching. Parts II, III, and IV develop according to what might be called an
“expanding horizons” orientation—offering a rich set of new teacher nar-
ratives that widen the angle of vision from personal biography, to class-
rooms, school, and society. These parts of the book include questions and
activities that encourage discussion and further research about the issues
raised in those chapters. Part V addresses the possibilities for curriculum
decision making and making a difference in light of preceding chapters.
Part II situates the new teachers, who are the subjects of this book, in
their personal as well as social contexts. Decisions to become a teacher typi-
cally get made within the nexus of family and friends. Individual relation-
ships, partners, and perhaps even children all play a role in the
decision-making process, both in terms of becoming and remaining a
teacher. We found that gender, ethnicity, and class all contribute to shaping
reactions of significant others to this career choice. These narratives sug-
gest the difficulties new teachers face in “having a life,” especially as they
embark on their careers.
Part III broadens the analysis to include classrooms, schools, neighbor-
hoods, and school districts. The cultures associated with each of these do-
mains have an enormous impact on the daily life of new teachers, from
classroom management strategies to expectations about what is appropri-
ate or “recommended” at a school in terms of homework and academic
achievement. Although many teachers consider teaching a solitary en-
deavor, facing 175 students a day leaves the teacher with little adult interac-
tion and support. Such a volume of intense intergenerational encounters
reinforces the impact of personal, social, and communal histories on shap-
ing classroom life. Success or failure in classrooms, especially in urban
schools where teachers tend to be White and students of color, often de-
pends on how well such cultural divides are crossed. As products of different
backgrounds, both students and teachers carry different mental scripts into
their classrooms, a set of preconceptions about what should or should not
occur there. The narratives of classroom life contained in this book will help
teacher education students uncover their own set of expectations about
classroom and school life.
Part IV examines the historical and political forces that shape contempo-
rary teaching and learning in the United States. It is no accident, for exam-
ple, that most teachers are female or that most school administrators, even
at the primary level, are male. This gendered profile within the educational
profession is a product of social, economic, and political forces at work over
xii PREFACE

the last 150 years. Likewise, schooling in the United States has been shaped
by the competing agendas of local, state, and increasingly national govern-
ments, which have produced different results in different places. Under-
standing the political and historical contexts of schooling in the United
States is critical if prospective teachers are to make informed decisions
about the kinds of schools and communities in which they wish to work.
The author of Part V, Karen K. Zumwalt, is a highly knowledgeable
teacher educator and former dean at Teachers College, Columbia Univer-
sity. Along with many noted teacher educators, she has recently completed
a review of research on teacher education for the American Educational Re-
search Association. Her experience and expertise makes her well situated
to comment on the implications of the research contained in this book. This
section will help readers understand better how they can find room for their
own voices as teachers in the age of accountability.
The first four parts of the book are each divided into three or more chap-
ters. Each chapter is subdivided into sections revolving around a key theme
articulated by those interviewed for this book. In Parts II, III, and IV, each
chapter follows a similar format: introduction to the theme, excerpts from
teacher narratives, and a set of questions and activities designed to encour-
age further reflection and action. Once again, the themes and narratives
presented here were selected because they represent issues widely voiced
across scores of interviews with new teachers over the last several years.
Because we believe that teaching is a messy, complex, customized, and hu-
manistic endeavor, we resist the notion that it can be reduced to a “10-step
program,” or any set of rules. That is not to say that principles of good prac-
tice do not exist. However, the conditions in which these principles get en-
acted play a large role in shaping practice. Professional judgment is
necessary in determining when, how, and to what extent these principles
should shape classroom practice. Thus, we adopt an inquiry-oriented per-
spective to the problems presented here. We call on readers to make up their
own minds about the problems illustrated by these narratives. We present a
set of reflective questions at the end of each thematic section and a set of activ-
ities at the end of each chapter. These exercises call on readers to use their
own personal stories and investigative skills to deliberate further about these
issues. Perhaps some readers will create artistic responses to the teaching is-
sues presented here, like Tracy Barsoti, whose poetry opens Part I. Others
might be moved to write ethnographies of classroom life, develop action re-
search projects, or keep diaries of their first year in the classroom. Whatever
framework readers use to respond to these issues concerned with becoming
and remaining a teacher, making such reflection a habit early in their teach-
ing life and sharing dilemmas with colleagues will help new teachers cope
with the demands of becoming a teacher. Moreover, such habits will help
them sustain this work over the long haul.
PREFACE xiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In bringing this book to press, we wish to acknowledge the encouragement

and expertise of our editor, Naomi Silverman, and her assistant, Erica Kica,
and the reviewers for Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Barbara B. Levin, Uni-
versity of North Carolina–Greensboro; Kenneth M. Zeichner, University of
Wisconsin–Madison; Marilyn Johnston, Ohio State University; and Holly
Thornton, University of North Carolina–Greensboro. We also acknowl-
edge the helpful suggestions made by various individuals who read earlier
versions of the manuscript, including Shirley Brown, Jennifer Blaxall
Buice, Andrea Mandel, and Sarah Melvoin. Special thanks go to Eric
Rothschild, who suggested the interview project at Teachers College, and
with whom the ongoing research concerning social studies teachers contin-
ues to be a real pleasure. Thanks also go to David Gerwin, Queens College,
City University of New York, for introducing the authors to each other and
inspiring this book project.
Most of all, we thank the many new teachers who participated in this
study by sharing their precious time with us, many repeatedly. Their gener-
osity in sharing the news of their work—their struggles as well as their tri-
umphs—is testimony to the fine work that many teachers do today in
difficult and demanding circumstances.
Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Morning in the West:
A Book of Verse
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Morning in the West: A Book of Verse

Author: Katherine Hale

Release date: September 8, 2020 [eBook #63153]

Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Al Haines

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNING IN THE

WEST: A BOOK OF VERSE ***
 MORNING IN THE WEST

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

Grey Knitting
The White Comrade
The New Joan
Canadian Cities of Romance
Morning in the West
A BOOK OF VERSE

By
KATHERINE HALE
(Mrs. John Garvin)

THE RYERSON PRESS

TORONTO

Copyright, Canada, 1923, by

THE RYERSON PRESS

TO MY MOTHER

Katherine Hale Byard

who means song to me

CONTENTS
 I. Morning in the West

Cun-ne-wa-bum
Ballad of Jasper Road
Buffalo Meat
Return of the Trappers
An Old Lady
Spanish Pilots

II. Women

Enchantment
She Who Paddles
Down Near the Glen
The Bolshevik
Pavlowa Dancing
Calvé in Blue
Sign to Trespassers
Silver Slippers
A Fabulous Day
Christmas Eve
To Marjorie Pickthall
I Who Cut Patterns
Poetesses

III. Going North

Going North
Study in Shadows
Northern Graveyards
Stony Lake
Trade
Snake Island
Juniper Ring
White Slumber
Crimson Pool

IV. Miracles

Miracles
 MORNING IN THE WEST

CUN-NE-WA-BUM

Portrait in the Royal Ontario Museum

Cun-ne-wa-bum—"one who looks on stars"—

(Feel the singing wind from out the western hills)
"The tip-end of a swan's wing is her fan,
With a handle of porcupine quills."
Here is the artist's name, Paul Kane;
Painting in forty-seven, at Edmonton, I see.
That was when prairies were untamed,
And untamed this young Cree.

What an incantation in her name!

Magic as her dark face underneath the stars;
There is sword-like wind about it wrapped,
And echoes of old wars.

Cun-ne-wa-bum!
When turtle shells were rattling,
And the drums beat for the dance
In the great hall of the Factor's house till dawn,
You sat without the door,
Where the firelight on the floor
Caught the red of beads upon your moccasins.
At evening through the grassy plains the wind
Came shouting down the world to meet the dawn,
And with the wind the firelight rose and fell,
Answered with flame his shrill barbaric yell,
And died like whining fiddles at his feet.
And through it all the constant sound of drums—
Did your feet move to drums?

The men from near and far,

Crees and Sarcees,
And a Blackfoot brave or two,
Made rhythm of a dance that moves like rhyme
To the rush of wind, and rattles swung in time
To the constant, constant, constant beat of drums.

No Indian woman dances in the light;

Silent they sit together out of sight.
But to-night I think this artist from the East,
Who had come to paint the natives hereabout,
Found a splendid flare of crimson on the feast
And moved near the open door,
Where the firelight on the floor
Caught the red of beads upon your moccasins.

So it is, O Cun-ne-wa-bum,
Who were wont to look on stars,
That you sit for ever here,
Like a wild lost note from far,
From the days of ancient war
And of towered stockade and guns
In the Edmonton of seventy years ago.

In your buckskin and your beads

(Feel the sudden wind from out the western hills)
The tip-end of a swan's wing for your fan
With a handle of porcupine quills.
 BALLAD OF JASPER ROAD

I know a Blackfoot Chief

Whose name is Dark Plume Bill.
He lived beside the Jasper Road—
And lives there still.

He wears a queer checked coat

And a grey bowler hat,
But looks his ninety-seven years
For all of that.

His gaze is unconcerned

As he sits in the sun,
And counts the flashing motor-cars
That pass, one-by-one,

And trucks, like dreary monsters

Of a prehistoric day,
That are rushing down the road
In their crazy way.

"The first Red River cart,"

Said Dark Plume Bill to me,
"Came lurching up the prairie
Like a ship at sea."

(Oh, the long blue road,

And the stealthy pad of feet
And the first patient ox-cart
With its sail-like sheet!)
"Then the carts came faster,
And at the time of snow
We camped outside the Palisade,
Seventy years ago.

"Arrows, guns—big Buffalo hunts,

Much long fight,
And fires to warm the tepees
For the feasts at night.

"But when they laid the steel

And the long trail awoke
My Indian tribe had scattered
Like the wigwam smoke."

His gaze was unconcerned,

Yet he scanned the way he knew,
As though from out its clamour
He had found a vanished clew.

And I thought it must be strange

To sit in the sun
And look upon an ancient road
That you had seen begun

Out of silence and mystery

And crafty, ambushed death,
Come alive with men, and monsters
Of such an alien breath.

(Oh, the long blue road

And the stealthy pad of feet
And the first patient ox-cart
With its sail-like sheet!)
 BUFFALO MEAT

A Daughter-in-law Writes

It takes a letter sixty days to go—

An Indian boy runs down the trail to-night.
What shall I write to you?
My mind is full of gossip of a town
That you have never dreamed of.
So—shall I tell you of our shacks,
Huddled behind the tall stockade?
Our guns, with muzzles set against the prairie?
What if I write the truth!
Your son is now a savage;
By that much more I love him!

If I should say
I can stand all this tropic, summer heat
And menial tasks and crowded alleyways,
And fat squaws lounging in the sun,
And even water out of tainted wells,
And long, rough prairie rides—
All for the sake of autumn,
And its short, magic days of pure content!

If you could know my mind!

A little British mind two years ago;
To-day a sort of crowded, pagan scroll,
Recording strange old customs
And legends, various as the Indian tribes,
And prayers and songs and dances.

Songs that are old as earth itself,

Dances as elemental:
Skin drums and tom-toms,
Rattles of turtle shell, and whirl of winds
Against the amphitheatre of hills.
You will remember they were playing Sheridan
When we left London!
I can count every lilac spray on the old drawing room chintz.
I hope—I hope you have not changed it since!

Let me begin again.

If I should say
I love this small, rough shack,
For it has made me brave—
Braver, at least, than when I saw it first,
And saw a sea of prairie
And the dim forms of buffalo herds
Darkening the far horizon!
I am braver now than when the halfbreeds came
Racing towards us on that first wild day,
Mad messengers to frighten us to death—
Servants of trappers and the Nor'-west men—
Those halfbreeds! feathers dangling, tomahawks!
That was in summer.
Still the buffalo lingered,
Cropping the blue-grey grasses,
Plunging in the muddy wallows,
Always near us.
I could almost touch a shaggy flank.

Two years ago to-day, in Piccadilly—

That tea-shop place the day before we sailed
He said, "It may be wild enough out there,
But I shall keep you safe—
Oh, I shall keep you safe!"

We loitered through that first bright autumn

And on the edge of winter had no meat.
Who wants meat, here, must follow it—and kill.
So, like a band of pilgrims, we set out—
Unguarded women are not left behind—
Walking beside our husbands all the way.
Far out of sight, the Indians
Search for the roaming herds.
They are on splendid ponies.
We settlers are the country's parasites.
When Mary Scott, the factor's wife, and I,
With two young squaws, were left a day in camp
We learned an incantation.
Another day when we were on the trail
My wedding ring was taken from my hand
Just as a warning,
A little necessary bright horse-play,
To show us who was master.
Five days of march and then the broad plateau—
White plains, brown beasts,
Red, flying figures of the Indian guides,
Bonfires at night and sleep in soft skin bags,
Warm blood of slaughter—

But—
It takes a letter sixty days to go,
Even at this season, when there is no snow.
Autumn has fallen on London.
I can see you in the sweet old room.
Please do not change a thing until I come!
Fires will be lit, your velvet curtains drawn,
And when you read my letter, dearest one,
Pray that some great day I may have a son
To mingle past with present.
For now each treacherous hour seems all of life;
I am as much a hunter as a wife,
To whom the summer is a breathing space,
Who waits for autumn
And trots beside her husband, through the grass
That shudders in the late November wind,
Or lies like frozen foam beneath our feet,
Looking for buffalo meat!

RETURN OF THE TRAPPERS

Against the rolling snowdrifts,

Misted by the frost-fog,
Dwarfish, pigmy figures,
See them come!
Open the gates of the great stockade,
Welcome them home.
There's my Red-Scarf!
I can almost hear him snarling,
"Marche! Marche!"
Down at old Fort Garry,
I have heard them say
That they take the women,
Who dog-trot behind them
All the way.
Not out here! Not out here!
With the glass at minus forty
Half the year!
There's the first big husky—
Think you hear his bell?
That is Henri leading;
Yes, among a thousand halfbreeds,
I would know his yell!
What you bet the sleds hold?
There's a slide!
Why that drift the other day
Stretched a half mile wide.
What you bet the sleds hold?
Fire the gun!
Here the women come, pell mell.
They've got ears, those Indian women,
Not much need to fire the gun!
Now we're in for days of steeping,
Matching, drying, sorting—rum.
Hear the whips crack!
Hi! Hi!
See, that's Henri!
Three, four, five—
Not one train lost.
Here they come!

AN OLD LADY

Madame de Courament excels at Bridge.

Hers is a clever hand,
Coloured with age and wrinkled;
But beautiful and tapering too,
Quite in accord with this old, stately room,
With crystal chandeliers,
And flowers and the warm tapestry of books.
Silent the cards fall.
Down the long avenue a dog howls at the moon,
A far, frost-sharpened sound.
The wind swirls up a little storm of snow
That blows against the casement.
A skilled opponent, Madame makes few mistakes
Like that a moment since,
When suddenly the dog howled—and we lost a trick.
She has a flashing wit,
Dinners at Rideau Hall are incomplete without her.
As someone said the other day,
"These elderly, elaborate folk
Are like a passing pageantry,
Gorgeous and of another day."
Silent the cards fall.
Again the far-off dog howls at the moon.

An hour later, "Chateau Laurier" she told the chauffeur.

And, alert and gay,
Wrapped in her sables,
She was motoring me the long white way to town
And gossiping of little this and that.
But just as we were nearing city lights
She said, "I saw you noticed that dog's bark.
It sounded almost like a wolf's;
It took me back to the Red River days.
Oh, it was fifty years ago, my dear;
I was as young as you ... It seems like yesterday.
Hardships! I loved it all!
Even the wolves, baying far out of sight,
Failed to disturb our rest
When we were safe at home.
The Indians were quite friendly—
And the eternal glamour of the snow!
And yet to-night, just when I heard that sound,
Sharpened by frost,
I felt an old pain strike me,
The knife-like thrust, before a child is born.
I was alone that night.
My husband had been called to Edmonton,
My Indian maid had let her family in
Looking for whiskey.
I dared not call to her.
For hours the Indians danced and sang and yelled.
I watched them from my icy-cold bedroom
Through great cracks in the floor.
Before they slept they sat crouched by the fire,
As I crouched up above in fright and pain.
And all night long I heard the wolves;
They kept a sort of savage company
With my own stifled cries.
To-night, my mind went back a moment strangely—
I always thought he had the sweetest face
Of any of my seven ... But then he was the first!"

She raised her glittering hand

And found the speaking tube, to modify her chauffeur's pace.
"And that, my dear, was fifty years ago," she said.
"The prairie was a very different place—
I never thought, then, I should come to Bridge!"

SPANISH PILOTS

To Agnes C. Laut

These were the ragged peon crews,

Half-bloods of Aztec women,
Of Spaniards and adventurers
Who were not seeking heaven!
But out on the broad seas driven,
And from the Horn to Sitka,
They searched for deep-sea findings
The whole unknown way,
With "small ringing of bells
And no trumpet blare,
Empty stomachs, and empty guns,
But plenty of prayer."
And if they failed of the findings,
Nothing behind but the branding irons,
Or slavery in the mines.
Yet they sang
As they sailed in their rickety death-traps;
They laughed as they rode,
And they sank as the rip-tide caught them fast
With a cry to the Virgin,
A prayer to the Virgin—
There was plenty of prayer at the last!
 WOMEN

ENCHANTMENT

I never see a blue jay

But I think of her;
Never hear that hoarse "dear—dear"
From a tree-top stir,
And the answering call
Far, far away,
And the flash of azure—
Oh, she would stay
Listening in the forest,
Loitering through the silence,
Hearing calls and singing
All the livelong day!

SHE WHO PADDLES

She who paddles swiftly,

Lithe and brown in the sun,
And dances, lithe as an Indian princess
In the barbaric days of splendour
Might have done—
She can laugh and jest too,
Play and wine and dine;
But none of these things have wooed me,
Bound me close by a mystery,
Made her eternally mine.
For we have found still places
Deep in the wood;
Climbed a ledge of grey rock
Where a pink-legged heron stood;
Heard the distant loon's cry;
Watched a lonely bird fly—
And she does not stir then,
Does not turn to me then,
But softly walks in the forest
In no great need of men.

DOWN NEAR THE GLEN

(In fear of fairies Irish women sometimes disguise

their boys as girls)

"I dress him sweet," the woman told me,

"All in white with a frill of lace.
See his hair
An' the curls that's on it!
Do ye know a girl with a safter face?

"If so I keep him till five or over,

There's not a one will steal him then!
With a saft wee girl
They'd never bother,
The thievin' fairies down in the glen.
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