THE ROOI-BAATJE SINGING ON THE ROAD.

Evening Star, Issue 11133, 8 January 1900, Page 4

THE ROOI-BAATJE SINGING ON THE ROAD.

The following lines, supposed to bo uttered by a dying Boer, and published under the bending "With Death's Prophetic Ear." appeared ir, a Cape Town paper of 4th October, over t)v.# ruitials L.J.0.8. The rooi-haa.tje, it may ' t, uxpliiined, means the red-clad soldier, and :s the name applied to the British soldier by the Boers : Lay my rifle here beside me, set my Bible on my breast,

For a moment let the warning bugles cease; As the century is closing, I am going to my rest.

Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant go in peace. But loud through all the. bugles rings a. cadence in mine ear 1 .

And on the winds my hopes of peace are s trowed: Those winds that waft the voices that already I can hear—

Of the rooi-baatje singing on the road. Yes, the red-coats are returning; I can hear the steady tramp.

After twenty years of waiting. lulled to sleep, Since rank and file at Potchefstroom we

hemmed them in their camp. And cut them up at Bronkerspruit like sheep. They shelled us at Ingogo, but we galloped into range,

And we shot the British gunners where they showed: I guessed they would return to us—l knew the

chance must change— Hark! the rooi-baatje singing on the road! But now from snow-swept Canada, from India's torrid plains,

From lone Australian outposts hither led. Obeying their as they hear the bugle's strains,

The men in brown hare joined the men in red. They come to find the colors at Majuba left and lost,

They come to pay us back the debt thev owed; And I hear new voices lifted, and I see strange colors tossed. "

'Mid the rooi-baatje singing on the road. The old. old faiths must falter, the old, old creeds must fail—

I hear it in that, distant, murmur low— The old, old order changes, and 'tis vain for us to rail.

The great world does not want us—we must go. And Veldt, and spruit, and kopje to the stranger will belong, No more to trek before him we shall load Too well, too well, I know it, for I hear it m the song Of the rooi-baafjc singing on the road.'