Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1087, 5 August 1871, Page 2

Select Poetry.

BILL MASON'S BRIBE, Half an hour till train time sir, And a fearful dark night, too; Take a look at the switch-lights, Tom, Fetch in a stick when you're through: "On time ? " Well, yes, I guess so:— Lett the last station all right— She'll tfome round the curve a-flying ; Bill Mason comes up to-night. You know Bill ? He's engineerBeen on the road all his life ; I'll never forget the mornin' He married his chuck of a wife: 'Twas the summer the mill-hands struck— Just ojf work, every one; They kicked up a row in the village, And killed old Donovan's son. Bill hadn't been married mor'n an hour, Up comes a message from Kress Orderin' Bill to go up there And bring down the night express. He left his gal in a hurry, And went up on number one, Thinkin' of nothin' but Mary And the train he had to run. And Mary sat by the window To wait for the night express, An', sir, if she lmdn't a-done so She'd been a widow, I guess, For it 'a' been high midnight When them mill-hanJs left the Ridge— They came down—the drunken devils ! Tore up a rail from the bridge. But Mary heard 'em a working', And guessed there was somethin' wrong, And in less than fifteen minutes, Bill's train it would be along! She couldn't 'a' come here to tell us, A mile—it wouldn't 'a' done— So she snatched up a lantern And made for the bridge alone. Then down came the night express, sir, And Bill was makin' her climb ! But Mary held the lantern, A swinging it all the time. Well, by Jove! Bill saw the signal, And he stopped the night express. And he found his Mary cryin' On the track, in her weddin' dress: Cryin' and laughin' for joy, sir, An' holdin' on to the lightHello ! here's the train—goed bye, sir, Bill Mason's on time to-night!