TKE GUINEA POEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 72

TKE GUINEA POEM.

A CHEQUE FOR £1 Is has been cent to th* ■writer of this verse — E. L., Waikino, Auckland:— We had a. washing contest Out at our camp one day, And the man who washed with BAPON With the prize pipe walked away I WIN A GUINEA! Prize Poem publisketl every Saturday. Beat original four skoetijke adrt. Terso about " SAPON " wins each we*k. SAPON wrapper must be enclosed. Addr«es. "SAPON" [Oatmeal Wasting Powd«r], P.O. Box 635, Wellington. Write for free Art Booklet, containing 2? valuable hiutjs on Wasbii^

the hearts of all . _. . the future is' bright as the new spring days. When at last word comes south that the ice ie clearing from the coast, the vessels spread their little wings to the first favouring wind. . . . Little 6hips, ' indeed, they are — not great vessels, with a towering spread of canvas, whose security 16 in open ■water. . . . The Labrador fleet is a fleet of doughty schooners, a white cloud of sail, whose escape ie into harbour. Most are little more than opejn boats : you must stoop when you enter the cabin ; you can stand on the rail and rock them . . . and most are sailed by the hands that builded them in the harbours fr«m which they hail. Here is another extract from Dr Grenfell's diary as contributed to the Montreal Weekly Witness — not without its sense of humour : We were buying " skin bootB " from the best maker of these indispensable articles in Labrador life a few days ago. These "boots are the lightest, most water-tight, and least expensive in the world, and deserve a far greater notoriety than they have obtained. When the settler came off to conclude the bargain I offered him "Gold or notes?" "Gold," he said; "I never seed any." He turned it over, curiously looking at the engravings on both sides. "I think I'll take 'en," he said. Some one suggested it as the subject for a picture to accompany "The Soul's Awakening." As we were loaded to the full with sick folk and oux small galley had already reduced us to begging ready-baked bread from friends to keep pace with thencapacity, we ran as far into each mgnt as coasting in these regions permits. Something of the dire necessity for further help in the medical and nursing staff which second* Dr Grenfell's efforts 'speaks from this last extract from the Game source: But there was no time to delay, and having landed! our entire cargo of patients we again, left for the south, the same day picking up a, poor young mother who, left in ignorant buxtda in her hour of need, has lost her first-born and almost her life, and must now look forward to a long period of invalidism and a subsequent operation as her only hope against a lue ©I prolonged misery. In asking you, my dear friends and readers, to show what practical sympathy you can to Dr Grenfell's work, though I nope we may be able to send a sum •worthy of ourselves, I shall remind you that it is not a mere question of £ s. <L— - that is a truth, a glad and happy truth, of which I cannot too often remind you. The Deep Sea Mission, like all missions the world over, is the union of those who love in the service of those who suffer ; and, therefore, it i 6 of those things, of the spirit which spring from, and must be nourished by, the spirit ; by love and thought and sympathy ; by the .divine impulse to help, which constitutes the bond of each human soul with the OverSoul, and blends us with the Universal Soul which is at once our Source and our Destiny. That sounds \ague and dreamful. No ; it is but saying ii? other words that the value of our message to the Far North is not the value of so | many shillings -or pounds, hut the cheer and gladness it shall bring to men and •women who henceforth know us as friends, listening lovingly for the story of their lives ; the deep peace and contentment which each such thought for others shall bring to us from- the know- i ledge of an ever-growing bond — "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the' least of tEese, ' ye have done it unto Me.'' j As I should' like our gift to take the form of an " Easter Offering." I shall ask all those who care to contribute to send in their subscriptions, addressed to me, «s soon as possible.— -Very cordially yours, ' EMMELIXE.