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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wayside Weeds, by William Hodgson Ellis
+
+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.org
+
+
+Title: Wayside Weeds
+
+Author: William Hodgson Ellis
+
+Release Date: January 21, 2011 [EBook #35033]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAYSIDE WEEDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Brenda Lewis, Charlie Howard
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at
+http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ WAYSIDE WEEDS
+
+
+
+
+ _NOTE_
+
+
+ _The verses in this volume
+ have been collected by a few of Dr. Ellis’s
+ friends, and in this form are presented to him by
+ them as a New Year’s gift_
+
+ 1 _January,_ 1914
+
+
+
+
+ INTRODUCTION
+
+
+ BY
+ MAURICE HUTTON, LL.D.,
+ _Principal of University College, Toronto_
+
+
+
+
+ W. H. E.
+
+
+ There is a Heav’n: at least on earth below:
+ It is where scholars read and thinkers brood:
+ For crowns and halos volumes in a row
+ For angels’ wings it has its gown and hood.
+
+ In that seraphic choir see Ellis sit!
+ With that Elys-ian light his numbers glow:
+ The scholar’s seriousness, the scholar’s wit,
+ Twin spirits in alternate ebb and flow.[1]
+
+ Studious and silent he has read life’s page,
+ Scholar and chemist he sees part and whole;
+ Teaching and thought let loose his noble rage
+ And stir the genial current of his soul.
+
+ His golden rod absorbs our meaner staves
+ As Aaron’s rod the rods of Phara-oh,
+ Or as New Brunswick’s river-name outbraves[2]
+ The pious Jordan of Ontario.
+
+ His May-blossoms relieve our strenuous May,
+ Our evening smoke curls bluer as we read,
+ The earliest pipe of half-awakened day
+ Draws a new fragrance from his choicer weed.
+
+ His artless puff-balls have a tale to tell,
+ His Flora opens treasures new and old,
+ His way-side weeds have been our asphodel[3]
+ His “dandy lines” become our “harmless gold.”[4]
+
+
+[1]Plato (sixth letter—323 c.) speaks of Elysian or Ellis-i-an scholars
+ “Swearing with scholarly seriousness and with that playfulness which
+ is seriousness’ twin sister.” Thompson’s _Gorgias_, 41.
+
+[2]See “Weed,” p. 37.
+
+[3]See “Weed,” p. 43.
+
+[4]See Lowell on “Dandelions”:—
+
+ “Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold.”
+
+
+
+
+ SOME ELUCIDATIONS OF THE INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITORS
+
+
+ Lines
+
+ 1. So also,
+
+ “. . . amidst the fairest flowers
+ Of the blest isles, Elysium’s blooming bowers.”
+
+ Greek inscription on a marble at Rome. Neaves, _Greek Anthology_,
+ _Edin._, 1874, p. 62 (“blooming,” vulgarism, meaning weedy.)
+
+ 2. Cf. _Ezekiel_, xxxvii. 1, 2.
+
+ 3. Academic “crowns and halos” (cf. Seneca, _Naturales Questiones_,
+ 1, 2, 1 and 3) must needs, for obvious reasons, be made of
+ paper. Notice also the subtle suggestion that Dr. Ellis is
+ _laurea donandus Apollinari_, worthy of the laurel (crown) of
+ Apollo. (Horace, _Carminum_, iv. 2, 9.)
+
+ 4. Why should “the gown and hood” be required “for angels’ wings”? To
+ clothe them withal, of course. The draping of angels with wings
+ and the attachment of wings to the structure of the back of the
+ human figure have presented problems to artists in all ages.
+ The best solution is undoubtedly to cover up the wings, and the
+ gown with its hood is the only appropriate garment. (Cf.
+ Carpenter, Edward, “Angels’ Wings,” . . . London, 1898, pp.
+ 25-40, in which the anatomical and sartorial difficulties are
+ fully discussed.)
+
+ 8. Principal Hutton and Dr. Ellis present the phenomenon of
+ ὁµοβλαστής sprouting (or swearing) together. Cf. Theophrastus,
+ “On the Causes of Plants,” v, 5, 4.
+
+ 10. In other words, Dr. Ellis is at once πολῠπαίπᾰλος, exceeding
+ crafty (_i.e._ master of many crafts, including angling). Cf.
+ Homer, _Odyssey_, 15, 419, 11. and πολῠπᾰθής, subject to many
+ passions. Cf. Plutarch, _Moralia_, 171.
+
+ 11-12. A subtle hint of ἐλᾰσί-βροντα, thunder hurling (cf. Pindar,
+ _Fragments_, 108), or ἑλλίσσω βωµόν, to dance round about it
+ (whatever it may be). Cf. Callimachus, _Del._ 321.
+
+ 13. Clearly referring to “_praedam calamo tremente ducit_,” he draws
+ in his prey with a rod. Martial, 4, 30, 9. Cf. _infra_, “Weed”
+ p. 31.
+
+ 16. “The pious Jordan” is evidently a bull, referring to the cult of
+ the river-god. It reflects _tauriformis Aufidus_, the
+ bull-formed Aufidus, the river upon which Horace was born
+ (Horace, _Carminum_, iv. 14, 25). We also have our Afidus or
+ Jordan, upon whose banks our own Horace lives.
+
+ 17-20. An ingenious reference to the University final examinations in
+ May, when candidates write all day and the examiner reads and
+ smokes till dawn. Having subjected his victims to freshly
+ devised tortures (_novo quaestiones genere distorsit_
+ Suetonius, _Dom._ 10), he broods over their miseries and their
+ papers—ἐλεᾶς ἀνέλεος—an owl without pity.
+
+ 23-24. Or, in the language of the angler, his ἐπανθρᾰκίδες have been
+ our ἐπανθισμός; his weeds have given us the motive for the
+ design on the back of this book.
+
+
+ J. M.
+ J. J. M.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+ Little White Crow 1
+ Consider the Lilies of the Field 18
+ The Skunk Cabbage 21
+ The Wanderer’s Song 25
+ The Cowdung Fly 27
+ The Song of the Bass 31
+ Maskinongewagaming 33
+ Magaguadavic and Digdeguash 37
+ Rhona Adair 40
+ The Duffer’s Elegy 42
+ When Potter Played 45
+ Colonial Preference 47
+ The Lyric League 51
+ Psychology 53
+ The Bal Poudré 55
+ Wisdom and Fancy 56
+ Persicos Odi 57
+ The Iceberg 58
+ Horace I., i 60
+ When You and I were Young, Adam 63
+ As a Watch in the Night 68
+ To R. R. W. 70
+
+
+
+
+ Christmas 1913 Toronto
+
+ _To those good friends in whose indulgent eyes
+ they seemed worth collecting and preserving;
+ And to the beloved memory of some
+ who once trod with me the Highways and Byways
+ where they were gathered;
+ I offer this handful of
+ Wayside Weeds._
+
+
+
+
+ Little White Crow
+ (A LEGEND OF ST. ANNE)
+
+
+
+
+ Part I.
+
+
+ Little White Crow was an Algonkin,
+ And he lived on the Isle of Chips;
+ His legs were long, and his flanks were thin,
+ He had high cheek-bones, and a strong square chin,
+ Jet black was his hair, dark red was his skin,
+ And white were his teeth, when a joyful grin
+ At the sound of the war-whoop’s hideous din
+ Parted his silent lips.
+
+ Three eagles’ feathers adorned his head,
+ Well greased was his snaky hair;
+ His face was daubed with black and with red,
+ No trousers he wore, but fringed leggings instead,
+ And moccasins ’broidered with quills for thread.
+ Very proud was his look, very stately his tread,
+ And of this he was fully aware.
+
+ Little White Crow had a sharp _couteau_,
+ A carbine, and powder and shot:
+ And the scalps of the braves whom he’d sent below
+ Hung at his girdle, a goodly row.
+ He’d a med’cine bag where he was wont to stow
+ Charms against famine and fever and foe:
+ And over his shoulders he used to throw
+ A beaver-skin robe on occasions of show:
+ Oh, a very fine fellow was Little White Crow!
+ If you’re curious to learn why they christened him so
+ The Indian Department might possibly know
+ Ask Deputy Minister Scott.
+
+ Father Le Cocq was a priest from Quebec,
+ Rather spindle of shank, rather scraggy of neck;
+ He’d a stoop in the shoulder, was yellow of skin,
+ With closely cut hair, and a smooth shaven chin,
+ He had very black eyes, and a rather red nose;
+ Wore shoes with steel buckles and very square toes,
+ A big shovel hat, a black cassock and bands,
+ And a rosary seldom was out of his hands.
+
+ But Loyola never, and nowhere than he
+ Had a loyaller or a more staunch devotee;
+ And none carried further the Jesuit virtue,
+ Viz.:—“Do as you’re bid, and don’t cry if it hurt you!”
+ Though gentle by nature and fond of his ease,
+ He would work like a slave his Superior to please;
+ He would shrink from no danger, pain, toil or disgrace,
+ Or would swear wrong was right until black in the face!
+ As wise as a serpent, as firm as a rock,
+ Yet as meek as a dove was good Father Le Cocq.
+
+ With bell, book and candle the priest had been sent
+ To Ottawa’s banks, with the pious intent
+ To find, if he could, after diligent search,
+ A few stray, red sheep for the fold of the church;
+ And there in a cabin of poles and of bark,
+ He sang hymns and said masses from daylight to dark.
+ It happened one day that good Father Le Cocq
+ Had been visiting some of the lambs of his flock,
+ And homeward returning, his pious task done,
+ Was paddling along at the set of the sun.
+ Now a man may be virtuous, learned, austere,
+ In religion devout, and in morals severe,
+ Yet,—true as it’s strange, and sad as it’s true,—
+ _Not_ able to manage a birch bark canoe!
+ So now,—at the paddle by no means a dab,—
+ He caught what is vulgarly known as a “crab”:
+ His balance he lost, the canoe was upset,
+ And Father Le Cocq tumbled into the wet!
+ Poor Father Le Cocq! any chance looker-on
+ Would have fancied for certain, his usefulness gone.
+ And, indeed, the priest’s chance was uncommonly slim,
+ The current ran fast, not a stroke could he swim,
+ And he thought all was over in this world for him.
+ But, thanks to St. Francis, St. Anne, St. Ignatius,
+ Or some saintly personage equally gracious,
+ It happened that not fifty paces below,
+ Behind a big boulder sat Little White Crow.
+ He was fishing for trout, and I wish I could catch,
+ In these days of saw-mills another such batch!
+ The rock, as I’ve said, hid the priest from his view,
+ But he heard a great splash, and he saw a canoe
+ Float down bottom upwards, while close behind that
+ Swam jauntily after,—a big shovel hat.
+ No moment to ponder paused Little White Crow:
+ He sprang from the bank like a shaft from a bow;
+ He could swim like a mallard and dive like a loon,
+ But he reached the poor priest not a moment too soon;
+ Caught hold of his cassock and collared him fast,
+ Just while he was sinking the third time and last;
+ Then reaching the shore, dragged the poor Father out,
+ As you’d land a remarkably overgrown trout!
+
+ It’s needless to mention that Little White Crow
+ Did not know, and could not be expected to know,
+ Doctor Marshall Hall’s method, so justly renowned,
+ For restoring to life the apparently drowned;
+ But he worked in his own way with such a good will,
+ He rubbed and he chafed with such zeal and such skill
+ That the priest after heaving some very deep sighs,
+ First yawned, and then groaned, and then opened his eyes.
+ Little Crow’s simple means as completely succeeded,
+ As ever the treatment of any M.D. did.
+ (Where credit is due I’m determined to give it)
+ And the priest before long was as right as a trivet.
+
+ “My friend and preserver, you very well know,”
+ Thus the Father the red-skin addressed,
+ “That of gold and of silver I’ve none to bestow,
+ In return for the life that to you I must owe”;
+ (Here he drew a silk bag from his breast)—
+ “But one precious treasure I beg you’ll accept.”
+ (And here, overcome by emotion, he wept.)
+ Then he took a small object from out of the bag,
+ Which he carefully wiped with a small piece of rag.
+ A moment he tenderly gazed on it,—then
+ He kissed it with fervour again and again,
+ One last lingering look of affection,—and so
+ He handed it over to Little White Crow.
+
+ With stately politeness the Indian received
+ The treasure so prized, and at once he perceived,
+ (With some disappointment, to tell you the truth,)
+ _A badly decayed, rather large, double tooth_!
+
+ “In your estimation, I very much fear,”
+ Thus gravely the Father began,
+ “Devoid of all value my gift will appear;
+ But when you have heard me its worth will be clear:
+ ’Tis a relic of Holy Saint Anne!
+ To tell half its virtues all night would require:
+ ’Tis an excellent cure for the vapours;
+ ’Twill heal any dropsy, no matter how dire,
+ Put out the last spark of Saint Anthony’s fire,
+ And stop all Saint Vitus’s capers!
+ The twinges of toothache, so hard to endure,
+ The quinsy, the gout and the spleen,
+ The scurvy, the jaundice, all these it will cure;
+ While to break up an ague you’ll find it more sure—
+ And a great deal more cheap,—than quinine.
+
+ “In short, there is nothing need cause you alarm
+ So long as this relic you wear;
+ You’ll find it indeed an infallible charm
+ Against every conceivable species of harm
+ To which poor humanity’s heir.”
+
+ He ceased, the red-skin gravely smiled,
+ And gravely shook his head,
+ And then the simple forest child
+ Addressed the priest in accents mild,
+ And this is what he said:
+
+ “My uncle thinks it’s easy to gull
+ Little White Crow, I ween;
+ Hollow and empty he deems his skull,
+ He fancies his wits are all gone dull,—
+ He’s wrong,—they’re _Al-gon-keen_!”
+
+ He grinned, and without any further delay
+ Put the tooth in his med’cine bag safely away,
+ And then with a gesture more free than polite,
+ Clapped the priest on the shoulder and wished him, “good night.”
+
+
+
+
+ Part II.
+
+
+ A year and a day! A year and a day!
+ How the days and the weeks and the months roll away!
+ How little we know what of joy or of sorrow lies
+ Before us next year—but I’ve no time to moralize.
+ Well, a year and a day had elapsed as I’ve stated,
+ Since the incidents happened I lately related.
+ Little White Crow and a score of his friends
+ To further their own individual ends
+ (And those of their neighbours as well, I’ve no doubt),
+ Deep loaded with furs for Quebec had set out.
+
+ They’d been rather more lucky than usual, I think,
+ In hunting the beaver, the bear and the mink;
+ And their spoils at Quebec they intended to trade
+ For the goods of the French, which long habit had made
+ If not indispensable still very handy,—
+ Knives, gunpowder, kettles, beads, bullets and brandy.
+ To keep to my story: our friends on this day
+ Down the river were calmly pursuing their way,
+ When Little White Crow in the foremost canoe
+ Was startled to hear a wild hullabaloo.
+ He sprang to his feet, and he shaded his eyes,
+ Then cried in a voice of alarm and surprise—
+ (We all use strong words when things happen to plague us),
+ “Oh bother it! here are those bless’d Onondagas!”
+ He said; and with yells of defiance the crews
+ Paddled quickly ashore and pulled up their canoes.
+
+ Oh! pleasant it is through the forest to stray
+ In the gladsome month of June;
+ To list to the scream of the merry blue jay,
+ And the chirp of the squirrel so blithe and gay,
+ And the sigh of the soft south winds that play
+ In the top of the pine trees tall and grey
+ A sweet regretful tune.
+
+ And pleasant it is o’er a forest lake
+ Through the cool white mists to glide,
+ Ere the bright warm day is half awake,
+ When the trout the glassy surface break,
+ And the doe comes down her thirst to slake,
+ With her dappled fawn by her side.
+
+ Where the loon’s loud laugh rings wild and clear,
+ Where the black duck rears her brood;
+ Where the tall blue heron with mien austere,
+ Poised on one leg at the marge of the mere,
+ Muses in solitude.
+
+ Yes, sweet and fair are the forest glades,
+ Where the world’s rude clamours cease;
+ Where no harsh, workaday sound invades
+ The Sabbath rest of the solemn shades;
+ A Paradise of peace!
+
+ But oh! it’s a different thing when one knows,
+ That each bush is an ambush concealing one’s foes;
+ When the sweet flowers are choked by the sulphurous breath
+ Of the musket whose mouth is the portal of death;
+ When instead of the song of the frolicsome bird,
+ Shots, shrieks, yells and curses alone can be heard;
+ Then the streamlet’s sweet tinkle seems changed to a knell,
+ And the forest’s deep gloom to the blackness of hell!
+
+ Little White Crow, at the close of the day,
+ With a handful of comrades was standing at bay;
+ Things had gone with them badly, they were but a score
+ And the enemy numbered a hundred or more.
+ Now flushed with success and of victory sure,
+ The Iroquois, thinking their triumph secure,
+ Were preparing to deal one last finishing blow
+ To annihilate utterly Little White Crow!
+ Poor Little White Crow! though a “fisher of men,”
+ He hardly looked like an apostle just then;
+ He’d been dodging all day behind rock, bush and tree,
+ A cunning old fox in a scrimmage was he.
+ But numbers will tell in the long run, and now,
+ With hate in his heart and revenge on his brow,
+ With his knife in his teeth and his gun in his hand,
+ As he urged on his comrades to make one last stand,
+ Though his bullets were spent and their arrows all gone—
+ He looked more like Old Nick, I’m afraid, than Saint John!
+
+ Little White Crow had poured into his gun
+ His last charge of powder, but bullets he’d none;
+ He searched in his shot pouch again and again,
+ He begged of his comrades, but begged all in vain;
+ Among the whole party in fact there was not
+ So much as one pellet of No. 6 shot.
+ He was just giving up the whole job in disgust
+ When his hand in his med’cine bag chancing to thrust,
+ As Fortune would have it his fingers he ran
+ Against the back tooth of the blessed Saint Anne!
+ Little White Crow gave a terrible shout,
+ The tooth in a trice from the bag he whipped out,
+ Dropped it into his musket, and yelling still louder,
+ He rammed it well home on the top of the powder.
+ But here come the foe! From rocks, bushes and trees
+ They start like a swarm of exasperate bees;
+ A capital simile that is in any case,
+ To describe an assault of Oneidas or Senecas:
+ And one, as it happens, remarkably apt in
+ This particular case, for the Iroquois Captain
+ Was a chief called Big Hornet,—a beggar to fight,
+ Who measured six feet and some inches in height.
+ ’Twas he gave the signal to make the attack,
+ ’Twas he led the rush of the bloodthirsty pack,
+ And ’twas he, as he charged in the front of the foe,
+ Attracted the notice of Little White Crow.
+ Little White Crow brought his gun to his shoulder,
+ And rested the barrel on top of a boulder,
+ Singled out the Big Hornet’s conspicuous figure,
+ Drew a bead on his forehead,—and then pulled the trigger.
+
+ “Click” went the flint lock, and the musket went “bang,”
+ The forest around with the loud echo rang,
+ The gun burst to atoms, so great was the shock,
+ And vanished entirely, lock, barrel and stock:
+ While wholly uninjured, incredible though,
+ It seems, I acknowledge, was Little White Crow.
+
+ But the Iroquois Chief gave a horrible yell,
+ He threw up his arms and then backward he fell;
+ He sprang to his feet and fell backward again,
+ He rolled, and he writhed, and he wriggled with pain.
+ His friends gathered round him and started aghast,
+ At seeing a _tooth_ to his nose sticking fast.
+
+ “Away,” they cried, smitten with panic, “away!
+ Let us fly to the distant hills!
+ The Devil is fighting against us to-day,
+ Our foemen are shedding their teeth as they say
+ That the porcupine sheds its quills!”
+
+ And shaking with terror away they all ran,
+ Big Hornet, as usual, leading the van,
+ While astride on his nose sat the tooth of Saint Anne!
+
+
+
+
+ Part III.
+
+
+ In the Iroquois towns very deep was the grief,
+ When they heard of the pitiful plight of their chief;
+ There wasn’t a woman in all the Five Nations,
+ Who didn’t indulge in prolonged lamentations.
+ They tried to relieve him, but tried all in vain,
+ The tenderest touch produced exquisite pain:
+ The med’cine men tried incantations and sorceries,
+ And yet, though their magic as strong as a hawser is,
+ The tooth wouldn’t budge for the best of the lot;
+ The more they incanted the tighter it got.
+
+ A Dutchman from Albany came to their aid,
+ Who had once been a student of medicine at Leyden;
+ He practised in vain each resource of his trade,
+ And swore that the tooth by the foul fiend was made,
+ While its carious cavity was, so he said,
+ A hole for the Devil to hide in.
+
+ Big Hornet meanwhile grew haggard and grey,
+ With grief and chagrin he was wasting away;
+ His friends found their efforts all powerless to save
+ Their chief in his rapid descent to the grave;
+ There was nobody able to set the tooth free,
+ It clung like a little Old Man of the Sea!
+
+ It happened one day there was brought to the town
+ A captive French priest in a shabby black gown;
+ He had very black eyes and a rather red nose,
+ Wore shoes with steel buckles, and very square toes;
+ He’d a stoop in the shoulder, was yellow of skin,
+ And a week’s growth of bristles disfigured his chin.
+ Alas and alack! it was Father Le Cocq:
+ The Iroquois wolves had both harried the flock
+ And kidnapped the shepherd—now doomed to be fried as
+ Soon as it suited the heathen Oneidas!
+
+ Now, just as a drowning man grabs at a straw,
+ His aid was besought by the favourite squaw
+ Of the sick man—no doubt at some saint’s kind suggestion
+ To specify which is quite out of the question.
+ “O Frenchman, remove the excrescence that grows
+ So horribly tight on the bridge of his nose,
+ And home to your friends you shall safely return
+ Instead of remaining among us to burn!”
+ Thus urged, the good Jesuit followed the squaw;
+ But oh! his bewilderment, wonder and awe,
+ No tongue can describe, and no pencil can paint,
+ When lifting his hands in amazement he saw
+ On the nose of the red-skin the tooth of the saint.
+
+ But Father Le Cocq wasn’t long at a loss;
+ He made on the relic the sign of the cross,
+ When, wondrous to hear and amazing to tell,
+ The tooth from the nose incontinent fell.
+ And the chief, from that moment, began to get well!
+
+ My story is told. There’s no more to relate.
+ The Iroquois sent back the Father in state;
+ They feasted him daily as long as he’d tarry,
+ Then gave him more furs than he knew how to carry,
+ And safe in his bosom, thrice fortunate man,
+ He bore the back tooth of the blessed Saint Anne!
+
+ As for Little White Crow from that day to the end
+ Of his life he was known as the “Frenchman’s best friend”;
+ A friend of French missions he called himself, and he
+ Without any doubt was a friend of French brandy.
+ At the close of a well spent career the old man had a
+ Collection of scalps quite unequalled in Canada:
+ But never again did he venture to sneer
+ At the bones of the saints, looked they never so queer.
+ He often would say that his good luck began,
+ On the day he received the back tooth of Saint Anne;
+ And for all his successes he piously thanked it. He
+ Died full of years in the odour of sanctity.
+
+1878.
+
+
+
+
+ Consider the Lilies of the Field[5]
+
+
+ O weary child of toil and care,
+ Trembling at every cloud that lowers,
+ Come and behold how passing fair
+ Thy God hath made the flowers.
+
+ From every hillside’s sunny slope,
+ From every forest’s leafy shade
+ The flowers, sweet messengers of hope,
+ Bid thee “Be not afraid.”
+
+ The windflower blooms in yonder bower
+ All heedless of to-morrow’s storm,
+ Nor trembles for the coming shower
+ The lily’s stately form.
+
+ No busy shuttle plied to deck
+ With sunset tints the blushing rose,
+ And little does the harebell reck
+ Of toil and all its woes.
+
+ The water-lily, pure and white,
+ Floats idle on the summer stream,
+ Seeming almost too fair and bright
+ For aught but Poet’s dream.
+
+ The gorgeous tulip, though arrayed
+ In gold and gems, knows naught of care,
+ The violet in the mossy glade
+ Of labour has no share.
+
+ They toil not—yet the lily’s dyes
+ Phœnicean fabrics far surpass,
+ Nor India’s rarest gem out-vies
+ The little blue-eyed grass.
+
+ For God’s own hand hath clothed the flowers
+ With fairy form and rainbow hue,
+ Hath nurtured them with summer showers
+ And watered them with dew.
+
+ To-day, a thousand blossoms fair,
+ From sunny slope and sheltered glade,
+ With grateful incense fill the air—
+ To-morrow they shall fade.
+
+ But thou shalt live when sinks in night
+ Yon glorious sun, and shall not He
+ Who hath the flowers so richly dight,
+ Much rather care for thee?
+
+ O, faithless murmurer, thou may’st read
+ A lesson in the lowly sod,
+ Heaven will supply thine utmost need,
+ Fear not, but trust in God.
+
+1865.
+
+
+[5]Awarded the prize for English verse in the University of Toronto in
+ 1865.
+
+
+
+
+ The Skunk Cabbage
+
+
+“Along the oozing margins of swampy streams, where Spring seems to detach
+the sluggish ice from the softening mud, the Skunk Cabbage is boldly
+announcing nature’s revival. Handsome, vigorous and strong, richly
+coloured in purple, with delicate . . . markings of yellow, it rises . .
+. a pointed bulb-like flower, as large as a lemon. . . . Even its devoted
+admirers, who seek it as the earliest of all the awakening flowers, feel
+constrained to apologise for the odour it exhales.”—S. T. Wood, in _The
+Globe_.
+
+ The soft south wind hath kissed the earth
+ That long a widowed bride hath been;
+ And she begins in tearful mirth,
+ To weave herself a robe of green.
+ The budding spray
+ On maples grey
+ Proclaims the quick approaching spring;
+ And brooks their new-found freedom sing.
+
+ Green is the moss in yonder glade
+ On cedars old that loves to grow;
+ And, underneath the pine tree’s shade,
+ The wintergreen peeps through the snow.
+ The fields no more
+ With frost are hoar;
+ But not a flower doth yet appear
+ In glade or wood or meadow sere.
+
+ The earth within her sheltering breast
+ The pale hepatica doth hide;
+ The bloodroot and wake-robin rest
+ In quiet slumber side by side;
+ The violet
+ Is sleeping yet;
+ And still the sweet spring-beauty lies
+ Beyond the reach of longing eyes.
+
+ But look! beside the silent stream,
+ Beneath the alders brown and bare,
+ What is it shines with purple gleam
+ ’Mid withered leaves that moulder there?
+ I know thee well,
+ But may not tell
+ Thy name. Yet I rejoice to meet thee,
+ And from my heart, old friend, I greet thee!
+
+ The lily hangs her dainty head
+ To hear her charms so loudly sung;
+ The rose doth blush a deeper red
+ To know her praise on every tongue.
+ But no kind word
+ Is ever heard
+ Of thee: The poets all reject thee,
+ The vulgar scorn thee or neglect thee.
+
+ And yet I love thee. Thou dost bring
+ To me a thousand visions bright
+ Of joyous birds that soon will sing
+ Among the hawthorn blossoms white;
+ Of happy hours
+ ’Mid dewy flowers;
+ The hum of bees; the silvery gleams
+ Of leaping trout in amber streams.
+
+ Soon as the snows of winter yield
+ To April sun and April floods,
+ Retiring from the open field
+ To strongholds in the thickest woods,
+ Then like a scout,
+ Dost thou peep out,
+ And cheerily lift up thy head
+ To tell the flowers the foe has fled.
+
+ O thou that comest our hearts to cheer,
+ The first of all the flowers of spring,
+ Brave herald of the opening year,
+ Accept the tribute that I bring,
+ When now once more,
+ The winter o’er,
+ Thy honest face has greeted us,
+ O Symplocarpus fœtidus![6]
+
+1904.
+
+
+[6]The fickle botanists have changed the generic name of the Skunk
+ Cabbage to Spathyema. For reasons which will be obvious to the
+ intelligent reader, the author prefers to retain the older
+ designation.
+
+
+
+
+ The Wanderer’s Song
+
+
+ We have left far behind us the dwellings of men,
+ We have traversed the forest, the lake and the fen,
+ From island to island like sea birds we roam,
+ The waves are our path, and the world is our home.
+ Juvallera, Juvallera, Juvallera, lera, lera!
+ Juvallera, Juvallera, Juvallera, lera, lera!
+
+ On the lone rugged rocks a rich table we spread,
+ The balsam and hemlock afford us a bed;
+ While the gleam of our camp fire illumines the sky,
+ And the murmuring pines sing a soft lullaby.
+ Juvallera, etc.
+
+ When the orient hues of the dawning of day
+ Emblazon the clouds and smile back from the bay,
+ We spring from our couch like the stag from his lair,
+ And drink in new life with the free morning air.
+ Juvallera, etc.
+
+ Then we launch our light bark on the silvery lake,
+ That dimples and breaks into smiles in our wake;
+ While we sweeten our toil with a tale or a song,
+ Or rest while the winds waft us bravely along.
+ Juvallera, etc.
+
+ At night when the deer to the thicket has fled,
+ And the scream of the night hawk is heard overhead,
+ We startle with laughter the wilderness dim,
+ Or the forests resound with our evening hymn.
+ Juvallera, etc.
+
+ Then Hurrah for the north, with its woods and its hills;
+ Hurrah for its rocks, and its lakes and its rills!
+ And long may its forests be lovely as now,
+ Untouched by the axe, and unscathed by the plow!
+ Juvallera, etc.
+
+1870.
+
+
+
+
+ The Cowdung Fly
+
+
+ Of all the flies that ever I see
+ The Cowdung Fly is the fly for me
+ In cloud or shine, in wet or dry
+ You can’t find the beat of the Cowdung Fly!
+ So early in the morning or when the sun is sinking,
+ So early in the morning or any time of day.
+
+ The salmon fly shines in purple and gold
+ Brighter than Solomon shone of old
+ But give me the finest that money can buy
+ And I’ll give it you back for the Cowdung Fly!
+ So early, &c.
+
+ A cute little chap is the silver trout
+ When the wind is still and the sun shines out!
+ No maiden so coy and no widow so sly
+ But he’ll jump like a shot at the Cowdung Fly!
+ So early, &c.
+
+ A tough old cuss is the big black bass
+ It’s a mighty hard job to bring him to grass
+ But it makes no odds how hard he may try
+ He can’t resist the Cowdung Fly!
+ So early, &c.
+
+ There’s many a fly of old renown
+ Green Drake, Red Spinner and little March Brown,
+ Coachman, Professor, but Oh my eye!
+ They ain’t a patch on the Cowdung Fly!
+ So early, &c.
+
+ There are Hackles black and Hackles white
+ Good by day and good by night
+ Hackles brown and Hackles red
+ But the Cowdung Fly is away ahead!
+ So early, &c.
+
+ There’s the little black gnat when the sun shines bright
+ And the big white moth for the cool twilight
+ But of all the bugs in earth and sky
+ I’ll bet my boots on the Cowdung Fly!
+ So early, &c.
+
+ Then anglers all you can’t go wrong
+ If you’ve plenty of Cowdung Flies along
+ You never will want for fish to fry
+ If your book’s well stocked with the Cowdung Fly!
+
+
+
+
+ Song of the Bass
+
+
+ Over the waters, merrily dancing,
+ Softly glides our light canoe,
+ While the phantom mirror glancing,
+ Shines alternate white and blue.
+
+ _Chorus._
+
+ Never can tell when the bass is a-coming,
+ Never can tell when he’s going to bite;
+ First thing you know your reel will be humming,
+ Strike him quickly and hold him tight.
+
+ Past the maples, red and yellow,
+ Crimson oak and purple ash—
+ Gosh! you’ve hooked a monstrous fellow!
+ Golly! don’t you hear him splash?
+
+ Hold him lightly, reel him slowly
+ If you wish your fish to save;
+ Nothing’s gained by hurry—Holy
+ Moses! what a jump he gave.
+
+ Lower your rod; now take the slack up—
+ Thank your stars you’ve got him yet!
+ Now he sticks his thorny back up—
+ Now you’ve got him in the net!
+
+ In the basket, wrapped in fern, he’ll
+ Lie in state in scaly grace;
+ In the pan, when we return, he’ll
+ Find a warmer resting place.
+
+ Let him fry in crumbs and butter—
+ Hear the appetizing fizz!
+ No weak words that I could utter
+ Can describe how good he is.
+
+ Serve him with a slice of bacon,
+ Quickly to the banquet come,
+ And unless I’m much mistaken
+ Your remark will be “yum, yum!”
+
+
+
+
+ Never can tell when the Bass is a-comin’
+
+
+Words: Drs. Ellis & Spencer. Music: Adapted.
+
+_Allegro piscatore: con brio._
+
+
+
+
+ Maskinongewagaming[7]
+
+
+ Would you slay the Maskinongé
+ In the fastness where he lurks?
+ Leave a card _pour prendre congé_
+ On the town and all its works.
+
+ Leave the tram-car’s jarring jangle
+ For the silent bark canoe;
+ For the forest’s leafy tangle,
+ Bid the dusty streets adieu.
+
+ As befits her slender tonnage,
+ In our tiny craft we stow
+ Cunningly our modest dunnage—
+ Shove her off, away we go!
+
+ Joy once more to grasp the paddle!
+ Farewell worry, doubt and gloom.
+ Care, who clings behind the saddle,
+ Finds in our canoe no room.
+
+ Off we go! The lake before us
+ Stretches far and stretches fair;
+ Forest scents are wafted o’er us;
+ Forest voices fill the air.
+
+ Paddling past the pebbly beaches
+ Where the ancient cedar grows;
+ Toiling in the open reaches
+ When the stiff nor’wester blows.
+
+ Winding down the silent river
+ Where the scarlet maples blaze,
+ And the pallid aspens quiver
+ Through the warm September days;
+
+ Past the oily eddies sweeping
+ Where the hidden boulder lies;
+ Down the rapid gaily leaping
+ Where the spray about us flies.
+
+ Poling through the gravelly shallows,
+ Floating ’neath the alder’s shade,
+ Where the moose at noon-tide wallows,
+ And the beaver plies his trade;
+
+ Shoving through the rustling sedges,
+ Battling with the autumn gale;
+ Lifting over rocky ledges,
+ Sweating on the portage trail—
+
+ On we go, with steadfast faces,
+ Till at last with gladdened eyes,
+ We behold the secret places
+ Where the Maskinongé lies.
+
+ Shall we find him in the rushes?
+ Where the waterlilies grow?
+ Where the roaring torrent gushes?
+ In the foam-flecked pool below?
+
+ Fierce and cunning, bold and cruel,
+ Is the Maskinongé grim,
+ Who shall dare him to a duel?
+ Who shall fight and conquer him?
+ * * * *
+
+ Proudly with his spoil returning,
+ We with shouts the victor greet;
+ By the camp-fire brightly burning,
+ He shall have the warmest seat.
+
+ Is he hungry? Pile the platter;
+ Thirsty? Join the gay carouse;
+ Weary with his toil? What matter?
+ Heap his bed with balsam boughs.
+
+ Fill his pipe with rare Virginian,
+ Cheer him till the echoes ring,
+ Monarch of his new dominion,
+ Maskinongewagaming.
+
+1904.
+
+
+[7]The place where the Maskinongé dwells. In the vulgar tongue “Lunge
+ Lake.”
+
+
+
+
+ Magaguadavic[8] and Digdeguash
+
+
+“Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters
+of Israel?”
+
+ Let each man praise the river
+ That’s dearest to his heart,
+ The Rhine, the Guadalquivir,
+ The Danube or the Dart.
+ Let others sing the Tavy,
+ The Tweed, the Wye, the Lea,
+ Give me the Magaguadavic,
+ The Digdeguash for me.
+
+ Some men choose lakes for fishing—
+ Ceceebe or Couchiching,
+ Namabinagashishing,
+ Kenongewagaming.
+ I’ll take my affidavy
+ That what they say is bosh;
+ Give me the Magaguadavic,
+ Give me the Digdeguash!
+
+ Beneath the shady willow
+ Cast cunningly your flies,
+ His wake a widening billow;
+ Behold the monster rise!
+ No dreadnought in the navy
+ Could make so big a splosh;
+ You’d hear at Magaguadavic
+ The trout of Digdeguash!
+
+ Behind the purple spruces
+ The golden sunset dies,
+ As each his pipe produces
+ And puts away his flies.
+ The basket’s full, the slavey
+ To-morrow morn shall wash
+ The spoils of Magaguadavic,
+ The loot of Digdeguash!
+
+ And when upon the table
+ They come to lie in state,
+ Hardly shall we be able
+ A decent grace to wait.
+ They need no sauce nor gravy,
+ For none can beat, by gosh!
+ The trout of Magaguadavic,
+ But those of Digdeguash!
+
+ O restless Bay of Fundy,
+ O mist and fog and rain,
+ Hope whispers I may one day
+ Behold you yet again.
+ How gladly would I brave ye,
+ Nor ask a mackintosh,
+ To see the Magaguadavic,
+ To fish the Digdeguash.
+
+ Callirrhoe’s fair daughters
+ Have fled their ancient grots;
+ The voice of many waters
+ Turns shrieking into watts.
+ But spare, oh! spare, I crave ye,
+ Amid the general squash,
+ The falls of Magaguadavic,
+ The rips of Digdeguash!
+
+1910.
+
+
+[8]Pronounced Mackadavy.
+
+
+
+
+ Rhona Adair
+
+
+ How dull these links to me!
+ Rhona’s not there,
+ She whom I long to see,
+ Rhona Adair!
+ Who has a swing so true?
+ Who such a follow through?
+ Who, who can putt like you,
+ Rhona Adair?
+
+ Who drives her ball so far,
+ Far through the air
+ Swift as a shooting star?
+ Rhona Adair.
+ Who hits her ball so clean,
+ Landing, whate’er’s between
+ Dead on the putting green?
+ Rhona Adair!
+
+ Whose strokes, of all who strike
+ With hers compare?
+ Who has a waggle like
+ Rhona Adair?
+ Of all the girls I’ve seen
+ Playing across the green
+ You, Rhona, are the Queen!
+ Rhona Adair!
+
+
+
+
+ The Duffer’s Elegy
+
+
+ “Oh! put me on your waiting list
+ I’ll be a golfer if I may
+ And learn the joys too long I’ve missed
+ Before I get too old to play!”
+
+ They gave him on the list a place
+ And year by year they let him wait,
+ For golfers are a long-lived race
+ And very seldom emigrate.
+
+ When, after many weary years,
+ He reached the top his sponsor said,
+ “The friend (excuse these natural tears)
+ Whom I proposed has long been dead.”
+
+ And when at last in Charon’s wherry,
+ It was the sponsor’s turn to stand
+ His friend came down to meet the ferry
+ A phantom niblick in his hand.
+
+ “Welcome to Hades,” thus the shade
+ In hollow-sounding accents spoke
+ Then spied a puff-ball and essayed
+ To loft it, but he muffed his stroke.
+
+ “Permit me, pray, to be your guide
+ Until you’ve learnt your way about
+ Our golf course is our greatest pride
+ Old Colonel Bogey laid it out.
+
+ “Some people say Avernus stinks
+ And Acheron smells like a sewer
+ But Fernhill golfers like our links
+ They find the air so fresh and pure.
+
+ “Cocytus, Styx and Phlegethon
+ As hazards serve extremely well,
+ In this particular alone,
+ The Lambton links are just like Hell.
+
+ “The asphodel wants cutting sadly,
+ The lies are wretched, more’s the pity
+ But everything is managed badly
+ By that infernal Green Committee.
+
+ “Come, lay aside your shroud and pall
+ And play a friendly round with me.”
+ (A Dead Sea apple was the ball,
+ A pinch of church-yard dust, the tee.)
+
+ He took the club of cypress wood
+ And smote what seemed a mighty blow,
+ But, though the aim was true and good
+ The ball remained in _statu quo_.
+
+ “Alack and well-a-day,” he cried,
+ “A duffer must I ever be,
+ A duffer I have lived and died
+ A duffer through Eternity.”
+
+1905.
+
+
+
+
+ When Potter Played
+
+
+ When Potter played in front of me
+ The other day upon the links,
+ The mist rolled landward from the sea
+ (The sleepy Caddie yawns and blinks),
+ We watched him waggle at the tee
+ And curl his body into kinks,
+ When Potter played in front of me
+ The other day upon the links.
+
+ We watched him make the divots flee
+ And dribble o’er the bunker’s brinks,
+ The dewdrops sparkled on the lea,
+ The sun shone through the fog bank’s chinks.
+ My partner, hopeful, said to me
+ “He’ll lose, and let us through methinks!”
+ When Potter played in front of me
+ The other day upon the links.
+
+ The noonday sun looks down in glee
+ While Potter in the bunker swinks,
+ He plies the niblick merrily
+ While Caddie unto Caddie winks.
+ The crow on yonder tall fir tree
+ Looks down and caws at such high jinks,
+ When Potter played in front of me
+ The other day upon the links.
+
+ The shadows fall on land and sea,
+ The sun to rest in splendour sinks,
+ And Potter crouched on hand and knee
+ Thinks out each putt, and thinks and thinks.
+ We all got home too late for tea!
+ My mind with grief and horror shrinks
+ From memory of the day when we
+ Played after Potter on the links.
+
+1910.
+
+
+
+
+ Colonial Preference
+
+
+ Macgregor, always spick and span,
+ Was quite the military man.
+ He never walked about the town
+ Arrayed in sober cap and gown,
+ But blazed in scarlet, gold and steel,
+ And clanked a sabre at his heel.
+ He took no pride in his degree,
+ In F.C.S. and F.I.C.,
+ But wrote with joy akin to tears
+ C.D., Canadian Engineers!
+ Macgregor had been often sent
+ His country’s arms to represent,
+ To Chatham, Woolwich, Aldershot,
+ Or anywhere, it mattered not.
+ He always followed, never weary,
+ “Quo fas et gloria duxere.”
+ At length, because they thought him yearning
+ To represent his Country’s learning,
+ Toronto Universitee,
+ Knowing how ready he would be
+ Alike in “bello” and in “pace,”
+ Despatched him to the I.C.A.C.
+ He packed his trappings Academical,
+ And sailed to join the Congress Chemical,
+ Which met that year in London reeky,
+ To study “la chimie appliquée.”
+ Watching the vessel’s fall and rise,
+ ’Twas thus he did soliloquise—
+ “I may not wear my sword and spurs,
+ But one glad thought my bosom stirs,
+ ’Tis this that I shall surely be
+ Presented to His Majesty!
+ It may be when he sees my face
+ He will reward me with a place
+ With my deserts commensurate
+ The Secretary, say, of State
+ For War, or give me Chief Command
+ Of all his troops on sea and land!”
+ Arrived in town, his journey done,
+ He took a cab to Kensington,
+ Sir William Ramsay, honest man,
+ With kindly words to greet him ran.
+ “Put on,” he cried, “your cleanest shirt
+ And free your hands and face from dirt,
+ To-morrow you shall go with me
+ To meet His Gracious Majesty!”
+ When they alighted from the train
+ They met the Lord High Chamberlain
+ Who scanned each name with anxious care
+ Lest some who ought not should be there.
+ “Here’s Stinkemout from Buda Pesth,
+ And Sneezetoff, and all the rest,
+ Ezra P. Binks from Idaho,
+ But here’s a name I do not know
+ ‘Dr. Macgregor from Toronto,’
+ That’s something that I’ve not got onto!”
+ Sir William cried “The College where
+ My friend Macgregor holds a chair
+ Is in Toronto, Canada.”
+ “Ah!” said the Chamberlain, “Ahah!
+ I’ve heard of Canada, of course,
+ But that’s another coloured horse.
+ Your friend, to say it gives me pain,
+ Will have to toddle back again!
+ The King, the invitation states,
+ Receives the Foreign Delegates.
+ Remove this person from the list
+ He’s nothing but a Colonist.”
+ A prophet, says the Holy Book,
+ Must not at home for honour look,
+ The greater here includes the lesser,
+ For “Prophet” therefore read “Professor.”
+
+1912.
+
+
+
+
+ The Lyric League[9]
+
+
+ We be seventy Lyric Poets,
+ All in the Fatherland,
+ Our verse is delightful, although its
+ Not easy to understand.
+
+ We’re the flower and crown of the nation,
+ The crown and flower of the earth,
+ But we find our remuneration
+ Inadequate to our worth.
+
+ We sing of “Sehnsucht” and “Trauer,”
+ “Die Liebe,” “Das Herz” and “Die Welt,”
+ But leider, we haven’t the power,
+ To sing from the public “Das Geld.”
+
+ The plumbers have their Union,
+ Fast joined the joiners keep,
+ And sweep hold dark communion,
+ With sooty brother sweep.
+
+ The motormen and switchmen,
+ The very firemen band,
+ Alone against the richmen,
+ The Poets helpless stand.
+
+ A fig for the Philistine slander,
+ Let’s cut from all precedent loose,
+ What’s sauce for the bus-driving gander,
+ Is sauce for the quill-driving goose.
+
+ We’ll found (because empty our purse is)
+ A Lyrische Dichterverein;
+ And we won’t write any more verses,
+ Under 50 pfennig a line.[10]
+
+
+[9]“Seventy lyric poets in Germany have formed a trade’s union, and
+ agreed not to sell their verses for less than half a mark a
+ line.”—_Daily paper._
+
+[10]The author encloses his name and address, not for publication, but in
+ order that the editor may know where to send the three dollars and
+ thirty-six cents—twenty-eight lines at twelve cents.
+
+
+
+
+ Psychology
+
+
+Dr. Jaeger has propounded the theory that the Soul is an emanation
+emitted by animals, and is the cause of the odour characteristic of each
+species. Cf. in _Lives of the Saints_, “the odour of sanctity”; also
+_supra_, page 17.
+
+ What’s the Soul? throughout the ages
+ Mystery never yet unveiled
+ Prophets, poets, saints and sages
+ All have tried and all have failed.
+
+ But at last we’ve got an answer
+ No vague dream or fancy vaguer
+ From a scientific man—Sir
+ Herr Professor Dr. Jaeger.
+
+ Printed in his lucid pages
+ This is what he has to tell
+ Listen poets; listen sages;
+ That’s the Soul that makes the smell.
+
+ Whoso takes his meat to season
+ Onions chopped or garlic whole
+ Shall enjoy a feast of reason
+ Followed by a flow of soul.
+
+
+
+
+ The Bal Poudré[11]
+
+
+ The Reverend Canon Dumoulin
+ Although he don’t object
+ To dancing in a room along
+ With company select
+ Can’t tolerate the _Bal Poudré_
+ I am not surprised at all
+ For when there’s powder, cannons play
+ The mischief with a ball.
+
+
+[11]While rector of St. James’s, Toronto, the late Canon Dumoulin
+ protested against the holding of a _bal poudré_ in aid of a local
+ charity.
+
+
+
+
+ Wisdom and Fancy
+ _From the German of_ A. G. Marius.
+
+
+ With weary steps as Wisdom trod
+ In Reason’s dusty way
+ Came Fancy with alluring nod
+ And beckoned him astray.
+ Laughing she snatched away his books,
+ And charmed him with her witching looks,
+ He could not say her nay.
+
+ She shook her curls with childlike grace
+ And all his anger fled,
+ He looked into her sunny face
+ And followed where she led.
+
+ And lo! his weariness was gone
+ Fresh vigour filled his soul
+ She led him up, she led him on
+ Till he had reached his goal.
+
+
+
+
+ Persicos odi
+ TO MY TOBACCONIST
+
+
+ I hate your imported Havannahs,
+ Your perfumed cheroots I decline;
+ His own special weakness each man has,
+ A pipe, I confess it, is mine.
+
+ Why take from their elegant wrappers
+ Your gilded cork-tipped cigarettes,
+ Fit only for militant flappers
+ Or reckless R.M.C. cadets?
+
+ What need for cigars to be pining
+ When smoking a briar or a clay;
+ In front of the fire I’m reclining,
+ And peacefully puffing away.
+
+
+
+
+ The Iceberg
+
+
+ We stood upon the deck and saw
+ Mid fog and mist the iceberg loom;
+ And while we gazed in wondering awe,
+ It vanished into mist and gloom.
+
+ With various skill each tried to draw
+ What printed on his brain had been
+ The vision that he thought he saw
+ Or that he thought he should have seen.
+
+ Some drew it flat, some drew it round
+ And some with many a tower and steeple
+ And when we shewed our work we found
+ As many bergs as there were people!
+
+ Across each other’s paths we drift
+ Pale shadows on a misty sea.
+ The clouds but for a moment lift
+ Then naught is left but memory.
+
+ If then at any distant day
+ Your thoughts should chance to turn to me
+ Draw me not as I am, I pray,
+ But as you think I ought to be.
+
+
+
+
+ Horace, Odes I. i.[12]
+
+
+ Colonel, Most worthy President,
+ Our Club’s chief stay and ornament,
+ One man who drives with dust and jar
+ A 40 h.p. motor car,
+ All other mortals counts but clods,
+ Himself a rival of the Gods.
+ The fickle crowd another woos
+ Him for a threefold term to choose.
+ A third will lie awake all night
+ If Manitoba wheat be light.
+ Not Rockefeller’s treasure chest
+ Could tempt the Farmer to invest
+ The savings of his life of toil
+ In shares of rubber or of oil.
+ The liner’s skipper when he steers,
+ The foghorn booming in his ears,
+ Through thousand dangers all unseen,
+ Sighs for the peaceful village green;
+ Yet fog nor ice nor foundered ships
+ Can stop him making record trips.
+ Some spurn not, when their throats are dry,
+ Long drinks of Irish or Old Rye,
+ Nor scorn to blow through moistened lips
+ Great clouds of smoke between the sips;
+ Others in such things find no charms,
+ And when the bugle calls to arms
+ Would banish from the tented green
+ (Bugbear of matrons) the Canteen.
+ The hunter leaves his tender spouse
+ For a rude bed of hemlock boughs,
+ Content to bag a head or two
+ Of bearded moose or caribou.
+ But give me rather, if you please,
+ A score-card full of 4’s and 3’s.
+ The bunker cleared, the putt gone done,
+ And, of all joys the flower and crown,
+ The well-hit tee-shot’s graceful flight
+ When everything has gone just right!
+ Alas! Fate holds for me in store
+ No chances of a bogey score.
+ I must send in till I am sick
+ Cards that defy arithmetic;
+ Nay, Haply, the Etobicoke
+ May add to every hole a stroke,
+ Yet, Colonel, if your grace awards
+ Some place among the minor bards,
+ Who sing the Game to me—Ah, then,
+ I am the happiest of men!
+ If me from this no fate debars
+ Then my swelled head shall strike the stars.
+
+
+[12]Read at the Farewell Dinner at the Old Toronto Golf Club House,
+ October 19th, 1912, Col. G. A. Sweny, the President of the Club, in
+ the Chair.
+
+
+
+
+ When You and I were Young[13]
+
+
+ When you and I were babes, Adam,
+ In good Prince Albert’s time,
+ The word went forth that war should cease,
+ Commerce should link all lands, and Peace
+ Should dwell in every clime.
+
+ When you and I were boys, Adam,
+ In Queen Victoria’s days,
+ Those guns that now so silent stand,
+ Where meet the rulers of our land,
+ With olive decked and bays.
+
+ Roared from the Russian ramparts grim,
+ Their muzzles all ablaze,
+ While old Todleben, with his back
+ Against the wall, foiled each attack
+ In Queen Victoria’s days.
+
+ When you and I were young, Adam,
+ In good Victoria’s time,
+ We stood together side by side,
+ When Mewburn and Mackenzie died,
+ And Tempest, “ere their prime.”
+
+ But say not “they have left no peer—”
+ That were unwelcome praise
+ To those three friends of ours long dead,
+ Whose blood for Fatherland was shed
+ In good Victoria’s days.
+
+ In royal Edward’s time, Adam,
+ Fresh prophecies were rife.
+ They told us nickel-pointed shot
+ And flat trajectories and what not
+ Would rid the world of strife.
+
+ But now that we are old, Adam,
+ We see with startled eyes
+ Quick-firing guns won’t stop the Jap,
+ Nor Serb nor Bulgar cares a rap
+ Who wins the Nobel prize.
+
+ When you and I were young, Adam,
+ There were no telephones;
+ There was no ultramicroscope;
+ And no X-rays for those who grope
+ And pry among the bones.
+
+ But, though with diagnostic aids
+ They were but ill supplied,
+ There were a few who shrewdly guessed
+ (Old What’s-his-name among the rest)
+ At what went on inside.
+
+ When you and I were young, Adam,
+ It was damnation stark
+ To doubt that all that breathe the air,
+ Came, male and female, pair by pair,
+ Straight out of Noah’s ark.
+
+ “Mutantur,” Adam, “tempora
+ Mutamur atque nos,”
+ And now we’re not a bit afraid
+ To tell just how the world was made
+ In detail and in gross.
+
+ In pre-Archæan periods
+ Of elemental stress
+ The C and H and O and N
+ Collide, rebound, combine, and then
+ React with H_{2}S.
+
+ Colloidal specks from this ensued
+ Which grew, and grew, and grew,
+ With lively motion all endued,
+ Till they attained a magnitude
+ Of 0·01µ.
+
+ Then somewhere over ·01
+ And under ·05
+ Amoeboid feelers out they sent
+ And took some liquid nourishment
+ And, lo, they were alive!
+
+ In pre-Archæan periods
+ Let fancy have her fling,
+ But, Adam, will your faith allow
+ Such goings on can happen now
+ When George the Fifth is King?
+
+ Well, times may change, and we may change,
+ But find him when I can,
+ I’ll drink a health to one who’s stood
+ For all that’s honest, kind and good;
+ So here’s to you, Old Man!
+
+1912.
+
+
+[13]Read at the Dinner given at the York Club, Toronto, November 29th,
+ 1912, in honour of Dr. Adam H. Wright.
+
+
+
+
+ As a Watch in the Night[14]
+
+
+ The soldier called from rest or play
+ To take his post as sentinel,
+ To guard until the break of day
+ Some sore-beleaguered citadel,
+
+ Springs to his arms with beating heart
+ To take some war-worn veteran’s place,
+ Proud to perform a soldier’s part,
+ Dreading what yet he dares to face.
+
+ His comrades’ footsteps on his ears
+ Ring fainter and fainter. Silence falls
+ About him. Moments seem like years,
+ And loneliness his soul appals.
+
+ But when the signal rockets flare
+ He strains his eyes the void to scan;
+ When sounds of battle fill the air
+ In face of death he plays the man.
+
+ He stays where duty bids him stay,
+ The boldest when he fears the most;
+ And Rounds, come whensoe’er they may,
+ Find him alert and at his post.
+
+ Unnumbered now the moments fly
+ By him whose thoughts are set upon
+ Each moment’s task. The eastern sky
+ Brightens with dawn. The night is gone.
+
+ And hark, at last he grows aware
+ Of footsteps his release that tell.
+ Clear rings his challenge, “Who goes there?”
+ “Relief!” “Advance, Relief, all’s well!”
+
+1913.
+
+
+[14]Read at the Dinner given in May, 1913, in honour of Professor van der
+ Smissen, Professor of German in University College, Toronto, on his
+ retirement after forty-eight years’ service in the University and
+ University College.
+
+
+
+
+ To R. R. W.[15]
+
+
+ From Scotland’s mists across the sea you bore
+ The sacred fire, (kindled by him whose name
+ Has made the century famous with his fame,)
+ And bid our lamp burn brighter than before.
+ Upon our Tree, a branch from Scotland’s shore
+ You grafted, and behold our Tree became
+ Wanton in leafage; with blossoms all aflame;
+ Deep rooted; and with boughs to heaven that soar.
+
+ We see the better issue from the strife,
+ And hope the best. In loathsome crawling things
+ We feel the fluttering of jewelled wings.
+ In Nature’s score, with seeming discords rife,
+ We seek to read, with you, the note that brings
+ To harmony the jarring chords of life.
+
+
+[15]Read at the Dinner given in honour of Professor R. Ramsay Wright,
+ Professor of Biology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the University
+ of Toronto, on his retirement, May, 1912.
+
+
+ Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
+ BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.,
+ AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wayside Weeds, by William Hodgson Ellis
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