Rhymes of the Survey and Frontier

You've often, by your fireside, talked of people you have known, / The soldier, p'raps the doctor, or the priest; / These verses are of fellows, most of whom are never known, / On whom the limelight falls perhaps the least.

There's many who've forgotten, in the comfort of a home, / The boys whose lives are mingled with the wild; / Who leave the surging city, model out the great alone, / To hardness, for your pleasure, reconciled.