They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching,

They have soaked you in convention thru and thru;

They have put you in a showcase; you’re a credit to their teaching;—

But can’t you hear the Wild?—it’s calling you.

Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;

Let us journey to a lonely land I know.

There’s a whisper on the night-wind, there’s a star agleam to guide us,

And the Wild is calling, calling—let us go.

—ROBERT W. SERVICE, from “The Call of the Wild”