The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Boys and Other Poems, by Alan L. Strang This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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.net Title: Our Boys and Other Poems Author: Alan L. Strang Release Date: May 13, 2011 [EBook #36094] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR BOYS AND OTHER POEMS *** Produced by Jason Isbell, David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
by
California's BOY POET
Copyrighted, 1919
BY J. L. STRANG
Alan L. Strang was born in Spokane, Washington, August 18, 1908. Living there until he was four years old, he came to California in 1913 with his parents, making their home in Redwood City.
He had a gentle, loving disposition, was always frail and delicate and possessed a mental development far in advance of his years. He was taken to the Great Beyond January 29, 1919.
The poems contained in this book were written prior to his tenth birthday. Considering the age of the author we feel that the work contains real merit, while the sentiment expressed betokens that patriotic spirit which never fails or hesitates when our country calls for men.
J. L. S.
Written after the United States entered the war, fighting on the side of the Entente Allies.
Written as a tribute to my brother, W. M. Strang, with the Engineers.
Written for the first thrift stamp drive.
Written when the clock was set ahead one hour on April 1, 1918.
Written for Decoration Day, May 30, 1918.
The poems and story of Masata in part second of this book were written during the last month of the young Author's life.
He was taken to the Spirit Land, January 29, 1919.
Masata was an Indian boy, he lived on the banks of the Ohio River in Kentucky. During the Revolutionary War in 1771, the Americans were taking over the land very fast, and when Masata was ten years old his parents moved to the wild regions of the Dakotas, taking Masata with them.
Here he enjoyed life although it was much colder than in his native Kentucky, and in the Winter months he wore coats of fur made from bear skin.
The days soon became filled with interesting things for Masata. One day when he was roaming through the wilds, he heard a wild buffalo approaching. He seemed almost helpless, as he had nothing but a small bow and a few arrows, and the buffalo was only a short distance from him. He began to run in what he thought was the direction of his home, but instead he was going in the opposite way. In a few minutes [Pg 44] he saw the smoke of a camp fire and ran toward it. By this time the beast was very close to him and he was almost in despair, when the buffalo lurched forward, then rolled over dead. Three Indians hunting near by had hit [Pg 45] him in a vital spot with an arrow.
The Indians belonged to a tribe which was his father's most bitter enemy, and they took him before their chief. The chief ordered that he be let live for two moons, and he was given a bed of dry twigs to sleep on as the night was drawing near.
Time passed quietly for Masata until the approach of the morning of the second moon. He had been planning how he would escape from his father's enemies. Finally one morning he slipped into a bear skin and hopped bravely off toward the woods. The Indians thinking he was a bear, shot arrows at him and wounded him in the right arm, [Pg 46]but Masata kept bravely on and was soon out of range of the arrows. Then he bandaged his wounded arm the best he could and set out for his father's wigwam.[Pg 47]
He arrived safely the same evening, and his parents were overjoyed to see him and know he was safe once more, and the tribe made a great feast, or as they call it, Pow Wow, as a welcome to his home coming.
While Masata was still a young "brave" their chief died and after a great ceremony, Masata was made Chief of the tribes, and was known as great and good ruler.
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