VAGABOND TRAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

VAGABOND TRAIL.

(Book prize to Noelle Macdonald, KeppoeH lyodgo, Howick ; age 17.)

Ding, ding; dong, dong! The great hollow cathedral bells rang out their call to the citv.

A vast congregation was slowly fining the tall pews; a congregation of men in well-cut dark suits, of women in smart and expensive robes and of children dressed in their Sunday best. It was a rich, haughty congregation that did not deign to cast a pitying eye on the ragged tramp who sat at the* massive stone archway. He was only t beggar.

With a sigh the tramp watched the last person enter the building. Then silently he crept up under the shadow of one of the arched windows and listened. The mighty organ was filling the lofty cathedral with throbbing melody and the vagabond felt the music tug at his heart. For a moment it seemed that he wanted to go up in front of all the rich and worldly faces, to walk solemnly up to the altar and offer up his soul. He could hear the choir joining in the tune he used to sing as a boy, and he lifted up his rich tenor with the rest. Suddenly he ceased and with a swift movement disappeared. A minute later a policeman on his beat swung past the spot unsuspectingly. ... Let the rich and mighty pray in their marble cathedral; but give the vagabond a glittering road and a choir of birds, and he, too, worships in his cathedral of the open trail. Next morning the two dusty shoes were pounding the track again and a pair of dry lips was humming the old hymn. The vagabond was offering np his soul to the radiant sun that sent its first rays along the winding trail. Not for him the city's street, With rush and traffic loud; But give him the sound of the dusty feet On the trail that's away from the crowd.