Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4628, 3 November 1883, Page 1

Select Poetry.

THE KING AND THE PAGE;

Kings have their pages, brother Jack, • To answer every royal whim, And, smiling light or frowning black, These supple fellows fly for him whose sunny smile or clouded brow To them is fraught with bliss or woe.

Oneday King Frederick the Great . Rang twice or thrice his .bell in vaiu; No page appeared on him to wait .His rising wrath leaped forth amain, And from his room in stormy rage He strode to shake his laggard page,. ■'•

When 10, the reason that delayed The boy (whose wont it was to flee At his command)'twas homage paid Unto a greater king than he— '.■ For while the king in thought was deep, The honest page was fast asleep.

And loosely in.his nerveless hand A letter caught the warrior's eye., It might be from "some traitor band-* If so, one life at least should die. . Kings, Jack, are not like you or me—' From thoughts of treason few are free.

No scruple touchedthe monarch's mind ; , Is was a cliance that conus to few— A subject's inmost tlioughts to find. ' He readthe letter-through and through.. Twas but a mother's thanks and blessing For timely aid from want distressing..

The king was lost, the man was found,/ ! : And still a greater, king than ever. :. He left a purse of golden sound With him who was so blest a giver. Returning to his room, he rangr: r: • .: His bell \vith fierce and clamorous twang.

The page a^yoke, ■; alarmed, and rah To find his angry master's eye - ■ - '" '.-■-■ ■-.''"- Regarding him with cilrious scan. " You sleep- much sounder, boy, than I!" It seemeth strange that crowned heads - Should always finds uneasy beds.- ■ ''■'■'■

Ashamed, the page could not reply— -.- For kings must have a kingly reason Or none at all—arid to deny\ The fact for him were double treason, So, fumbliag with ; his hands, he found ' The purse that had a golden sound;

Amazed, he pulled the treasure out. "What's that?" did Frederick sharp exclaim; "By Odin ! boy, you stare about As though you kifew not whence it came. Come, sirrah, out with it, and tell How 'tis your purse is lined so ■wellS"

" Mercy, my sire ! I know not where . This gold came from,-1 only kriow. An hour ago it was not there. ~: And that it is some villainous foe Who seeks my honour to destroy; ' And leave me thus a ruined boy!" .'

A something dimmed the monarch's eye; I'll call it just a kingly tear. '•' >'■ His mother's love, in days gone by, ' Was still to him "as noonday clear••' Where very love had brought-him: woe^- -• Few sons had loved their mother so. ..

" Stand up, my boyyno cause to mourn, • ' And do not call your king your, foe.; •> .-'.-.' God's wondrous ways no man may scorn To learn. The gold is yours", and know' I am your friend, your mother's friend! r To both your welfares rirattendl"s ■ * ■■%:

Dear Jack,. that fiery •warrior trod An hundred battlefields, but never. Whin master of the crimsoned sod, Or of the deeply purpled.river, Could he have known so sweet a joy As when he blessed that orphan boy. . ' • "'•' ■''■■ . SahiOn.