THE MAN FROM ATHABASKA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1894, 24 October 1918, Page 1

THE MAN FROM ATHABASKA.

For I joined the Foreign Legion, and they put me for a starter, In the trenches of the Argonne, with the Boehe a step away; And the partner on my right hand was an Apache from Montmart re, On my left there was a millionaire from Pittsburg, U.S.A. (Poor fellow! They collected him in bits the other day.) But I'm spryer than a chipmunk, save a touch of the lumbago, And they calls me Old Melhoosalah and “blagues” me all the day, I’m their exhibition sniper, and they work me like a Dago, And laugh to see me plug a Boehe a half a mile away. Oh, I hold the highest record in the regiment they say. And I tel! them of-the Finland, of the tumpline and the paddle, Of secret rivers loitering that no one will explore-; And I (ell them of the ranges, of the pack-strap and the saddle, And ihcy fill their pipes in silence, and'their eyes beseech for more; While above (be star-shells fizzle and the high explosives roar. And I fell of lakes fish-haunled, where the big hull moose are calling, And forests still as sepulchres, with never trail or track; And valleys packed with purple gloom and mountain peaks appalling, Ami I tell them of my cabin on the shore l at Fond du Lac; And I (ind myself a-lhinking; .-are, 1 wish that I was back. For I've had my till of fighting, and I've seen a nation scattered, And an army swung to slaughter, and a river red with gore, And a city all a-smoulder, and . . as if it really mattered, For the lake is yonder dreaming, and my cabin’s on the shore; And the dogs are leaping madly and the wife is singing gladly, And I'll rest in Athabaska, and I'll leave it nevermore! —From “Rhymes of a Red Cross Alan.”'