Caldwell at Springfield.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2060, 19 September 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Caldwel l at Springfield.

Hetik's the spot. Look around you. A^cn'e on the height Lay the Hessians encamped. By tho church on the right Stood the e,aunt Jersey farmer?. And here! fin p. wrll - You may dig anywhere ftnd you will turn up pbill. Nothin fa ' more. ppiing, waters run, flowers blow Pretty much aa they did. ninety-three years ago. Nothing mora did I cay ? Stay one moment ; you've heatfd Of Catdwell, the parson who once preached the word D»wn at Springfield? What! No? Come, that's bfld. Why he h »d All tho Jerpova aflame. And they gave him the name O£ the " rebel high priest." He stuck in their gorge, For ho loved the Lord God — and he hated King George ! He had cause, yon might say, when tho Hessians that day Marched up with Knyphausen, they stopped on their way At the " Farm?," where bis wifp, with a child in hor arms, Sat alone in the house. How it happened none knew But God— and one of the hireling crew Who fired tho shot. Enough 1 Tbere s'lo lay, Asd Caldwell, the chaplain, her husband, away ! Did he preaoh— did he pray ? Think of hira, as yon stand By the old ohurch to-day ; think of him and that band Of military cowboys 1 See the smoke and the heat Of that reckless advance— of that struggling retmat 1 Keep the ghost of that wife foully alain in your view — And what could you — what should you, what would you do ? Why, just what he did 1 They were left in the lurch, For want of more wadding. Ho ran to the church, Broke the door, stripped the pews, and dashed out in cha road With his arms full of hymn-bookg and threw down his load At their feet I Then above all the shouting and shots Rang his voice : " Put Watt 3 into 'om, boys ; givo 'em Watts," And they did. That is all. Grasses spring, flowers blow, Pretty much as they did ninety-three years ago: Yon may dig anywhere and you'll turn up a ball, But not always a hero like this— and that's all.

BrEX HARfE.