Ladies.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 21, 19 August 1893, Page 10

Ladies.

« ONLY A SIMPLE PICTURE.” On a lonely western stai i-jn, round the flickering glow of a lamp, In a hut by the mammoth woolshed, there were twenty men in camp. The hub was a rickety structure, gloomylooking and dark. And the roof was a kind of mixture of daylight and strips of bark. It wasn’t at all inviting, the table and bunks looked bare, And a few loose swags and some blankets were the only ornaments there. But it served as a kind of shelter, a sort of place to rest After a day’s hard riding ’neath the blazing sun of the west. But somehow or other that evening the hut seemed doubly drear, As memory woke the echoes of many a bygone year; And one of the men said, sighing, “ Oh this is a loensome place. I’d give a good deal, boys, to see my mother’s or sister’s face.” Jack Elliot looked up quickly, and said in a husky voice, As he handed a book to us, “My sister’s picture, boys. ’Twas the last thing that she gave me the morning I came away, And asked me to keep it always wherever my steps might stray. And she asked me, if I should be tempted to gamble, or fight, or drink, To look at her face in the picture, and wonder what she would think. So I gave her a kiss and a promise to try and act square and right, And she died with my name on her lips, boys, just a year ago to-night.” With a reverence almost child-like they opened the little case, And framed in a golden glory was a homelike, girlish face — Lips that were sweet and winning—a pair of true, honest eyes —■ To those lonely men she seemed almost an angel in disguise. The clasp was gently fastened, and voices were soft and low, As one by one they talked of home and the days of long ago ; And their hearts were soft and tender, and their eyes were dimmed with tears, As in eager tones they whispered the tales of other years. ’Twas only a simple picture seen ’neath a flickering lamp, But it lighted the rugged natures in that lonely station camp ; And it showed how a woman’s memory may wield a loving sway, And draw into purer feelings men thousands of miles away. Queenslander.