FALL IN

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1327, 21 November 1914, Page 4

FALL IN

What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack, When the girls line up the street, Shouting their love to the lads come back From the foe they rushed to beat ? Will you send a strangled cheer to the sky And grin till your cheeks are red ? But what will you lack when your mate goes by With a girl who cuts you dead ?

Where will you look, sonny, where will you look When your children yet to be Clamour to learn of the part you took In the war that kept men free? Will you say it was naught to you if France Stood up to her foe or bunked ? But where will you look when they give the glance That tells you they know you funked ? How will you fare, sonny, how will you fare, In the far-off winter night, When you sit by the fire in an old man’s chair And your neighbour talk of the fight ? - Will you slink away as it were from a blow, Your old head shamed aad beut ? Or say, ‘T was not the first to go, But I went, thank God, I went ?” Why do they call, sonny, why do they call, For men who are brave and strong ? Is it naught to you if your country fall, And Right is smashed by Wrong ? Is it football still and the picture show, The pub and the betting odds, When your brothers stand to the tyrant’s blow And England’s call is God's ? —Harold Begbie,