KILLED IN THE CLAIM.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 63, 12 January 1877, Page 2

KILLED IN THE CLAIM.

— 0— " A man boa been killed is the claim 1" And the sad news has travelled apace, But the messenger mentioned no name, Nor paused, in the fl^et-footed nee, And the women were pallid with fear, And the children have paused in their play, For the husbands and fathers so dear, Who have gone on their last shift today. And the hearts of the men felt a chill, And th<?n hum with an ardour to aid In a work where the hand and the will Of the mine? are never disunyeii, Though the ground m*y bo ready to care, And the water is rising 'tis said. i'et their mate will be laid in a grave Where his children may weep o'er his head. There's a patter of hurrying feet, And the gasps of hardly-drawn breath, For the women, fear-stricken, now mo«»t Bound the shaft at the dark scene of death. Bat there's one whom a kiad hand hath stayed And away from the spot gently led., Yet the act — though well meant— has betrayed That her loved one— her husband — is dead !, There are men moving now in the gloom Of the twisted and timber«wrecked drived, Buf they fear not the oft-threaten'd doom Whirh would widow their own loving wives. And like lions throughout tljalong night, Against earth, against water and drift, Thoy will work—where to work is to fight— For the dead, once a mate of their shift. These are men who are heroes in heart, Who 'midst danger will labor for bread, In the battle of life bear thrir part, A ad are brute that their children be fed. And while hon'ring the warriors who bleed For their own and their country's good fame, Let us Mp the y^ung ovpbins in need Of the men who've been killed in the claim,