THE PEACEMAKER.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 14 July 1904, Page 8

THE PEACEMAKER.

• w Two soldiers, lying as they fell <«V Upoa the reddened clay— \ Xn daytime foes: at night. In peace— •» Breathing their lives away. Brave heart had stirred each manly breast; Fate only made them foes, And lying, dying, aide by side, ,^- A softened feeling rose. "Our time is short," one faint voice said; "To-day we've done our best On different sides. What matters nowl To-morrow we're at rest. Ufa lies behind; I might not care y For only my own sake, W But far away are other hearts y That this days work will break, "Among old Hampshire's pleasant fields There pray for me to-night A woman and a little girl With hair like golden light"— And at that thought broke forth at last The cry of anguish wild That would no longer be repressed-* "Oh, Godl my wife and child!" "And," said the other dying man, "Across the sandy plain There watch and wait for me loved com I'll never see again. A little girl with dark, bright eye* >U Each day waits at the door; (*J The father's step, the father's kiss* V Will never meet her more. / "To-day we sought each other's liTSsf Death levels all that now. Tor soon before God's mercy-seat 4 Together we shall bow. 1 Forgive each other while we man \ Life's but a weary game, =j And. right or wrong, the morning rsM Will find as dead, the same." The dying lips the pardon brestbsj The dying hands entwine; The last ray dies, and over all i -Art The stars from heaven ahiae. V*< The little girl with golden hair, And one with dark eyes bright, •On Hampshire's fields and sandy PlStB . Were fatherless that night. J —fan Vernon, in Leslie's Weekly, "<.