None know the hour of starting--then prepare And let thy bark clean-decked put out to sea; But yesterday a million ships left port, But yesterday a million more sailed in; Still thou with heart heroic face thy tasks-- Faith in thy Pilot keep--He knows the way-- And bravely through the mystery sail on, With trust in Him. 'Twill be revealed some day. THE BUILDING OF THE CHATEAU Where the wilderness holds kingdom, where the primal fastness broods, I, the rock, within my stratum, lay amid the solitudes, Patient lay throughout the ages, part of the primeval plan, Till the voice of progress called me to the purpose of the man. From afar he came invading, pressing onward unafraid, Braved the spirits of the vastness where they met him grim arrayed, Piercing past my rugged outposts, hewing down my mighty guards, Crying I, the earth god, seeketh, and my purpose none retards. In the bosom of the mountain, there he found me, laid me bare, Found me fitting for his purpose, found me worthy past compare, With strange instruments attacked me, drilled and blasted me apart, From the wilderness he bore me, from my mountain mother's heart. Lifted me with strong devices, dragged me down the mountain trails, Barged me down the rushing rivers, speeded me on gleaming rails, Captive bore me to the city where I rose above the land, For the purpose of the builders who an edifice had planned. On the plateau by the river, 'neath the shadow of the tower, There the purpose was unfolded of the man's creative power. To the northward, the Laurentians purple-tinted cast their haze, Such the setting of my future, such the vista for my gaze. Came the toilers, swiftly shaping, blasting, through the day and night. Delving for my deep foundation by the city's vista'd site, Came the long and slender girders all the iron, measured, bored, Clanging protest as they piled it, while the blasting ripped and roared. Circling swung the straining derricks, shrieked the engine's shrilly note, As by magic to their places joint and girder seemed to float; Stone on stone they laid and set me, tier on tier my structure rose, On the plateau by the river, sweeping seaward as it flows. They have hewn me to being, they have shaped with skilful hands, And the chateau on the plateau o'er the river proudly stands, Deemed a miracle of beauty, classic, stately, and refined, Reared as fitting habitation for the leaders of mankind. Though I stand a thing of grandeur, stone on stone majestic piled, I am brooding on the open, I am dreaming of the wild. They would tame me with their graces, they would lure me with their songs, From the olden memoried places where my stony heart belongs.