THE OLD SETTLER *
Arriving flat broke in mid-winter
I found it enveloped in fog,
And covered all over with timber
Thick as hair on the back of a dog.
I took up a claim in the forest
And set myself down to hard toil,
For two years I chopped and I labored
But I never got down to the soil.
I tried to get out of the country,
But poverty forced me to stay
Until I became an old settler,
Then nothing could drive me away.
*portion of poem made famous by
the late Ivar Haglund of Seattle
