Prev
Next
There are strange things done in the midnight ___
By the men who ____ for gold;
The Arctic ______ have their secret tales
That would make your _____ run cold;
The Northern ______ have seen queer sights,
But the ________ they ever did see
Was that night on the _____ of Lake Lebarge
I cremated ___ McGee.
Now Sam McGee was from _________, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to ____ 'round the Pole God only knows.
He was always ____, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that 'he'd sooner live in ____.'
On a Christmas Day we were mushing our ___ over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's ____ it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes _____ till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much ___, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.
And that very night, as we lay packed _____ in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars _______ were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to __, and 'Cap,' says he, 'I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last _______.'
Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say __; then he says with a sort of moan:
'It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right ____ till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being ____—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to _____ that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains.'
A pal's last need is a thing to ____, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of ____; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the ______, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before _________ a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.
There wasn't a breath in that land of _____, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise _____;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: 'You may tax your brawn and ______,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last _______.'
Now a promise made is a debt ______, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were ____, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone _________, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless _____— O God! how I loathed the thing.
And every day that quiet ____ seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were _____ and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half ___, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful _____, and it hearkened with a grin.
Till I came to the marge of Lake _______, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ___, but I saw in a trice it was called the 'Alice May.'
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen ____;
Then 'Here,' said I, with a sudden cry, 'is my ___________.'
Some planks I ____ from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying ______, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace ______—such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing ____, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.
Then I made a hike, for I didn't ____ to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies ______, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat ______ down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky _____ went streaking down the sky.
I do not know how long in the ____ I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced _____ ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with _____, but I bravely said: 'I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's ______, and it's time I looked'; ... then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace ____;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: 'Please close that ____.
It's fine in here, but I greatly ____ you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left ________, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm.'
There are strange things done in the midnight ___
By the men who ____ for gold;
The Arctic ______ have their secret tales
That would make your _____ run cold;
The Northern ______ have seen queer sights,
But the ________ they ever did see
Was that night on the _____ of Lake Lebarge
I cremated ___ McGee.
Comments