Part 10 (2/2)

Well, sit beside the waterfall, Noisy with last night's rain;

On couch of , all fierce to see, When from the yet brown moor down drops The lonely April bee

All the wide valley blushes green, While, in far depths below, Wharfe flashes out a great bright eye, Then hides his shi+ning flow;--

Wharfe, busy, restless, rapid Wharfe, The glory of our dale; O I could of the River Wharfe Tell such a fairy tale!

”The Boy of Egremond,” you cry,-- ”And all the 'bootless bene:'

We know that poem, every word, And we the Strid have seen”

No, clever dah the tale Seeht wave, The broken mother's heart--

Little you know of broken hearts, My Kitty, blithe and wise, Grave Mary, with the wo distant may God keep The day when each shall know The entrance to His kingdoood to hear of grief Which He perreen inland home We talk of wrecks at sea

So on this lovely day, when spring Wakes soft o'er moor and dale, I'll tell--not quite your wish--but yet A noble ”fairy” tale

'Twas six o'clock in the ood troop-shi+p Birkenhead Set sail froht Glooht fled, and night Fell suddenly and soon

At eight o'clock in the evening Direw the pleasant land; O'er smoothest seas the southern heaven Its starry arch out-spanned

The soldiers on the bulwarks leaned, S babes to sleep, While on the shi+p sailed slow

Six hundred and thirty souls held she, Good, bad, old, young, rich, poor; Six hundred and thirty living souls-- God knew theht hand, That held the hungering seas; And to four hundred came a voice-- ”The Master hath need of these”

On, onward, still the vessel went Till, with a sudden shock, Like one that's clutched by unseen Death, She struck upon a rock

She filled Not hours, not one: Drowned in their berths, washed overboard, Lost, swi, one by one;

Till, o'er this chaos of despair Rose, like celestial breath, The law of order, discipline, Obedience unto death

The soldiers mustered upon deck, As mute as on parade; ”Woainsayed

Without a murmur or a moan They stood, formed rank and file, Between the dreadful crystal seas And the sky's dreadful smile

In face of death they did their work As they in life would do, E at a quiet quay-- A quiet, silent crew

”Now eachcry

The soldier-captain answered, ”Swamp The women and babes?--No, die!”

And so they died Each in his place, Obedient to co shi+p, Went down in sight of land