THE ROAD-SONG OF THE RACE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 20 December 1913, Page 9

THE ROAD-SONG OF THE RACE

I have lived in the garden with Adam, And eaten the fruit of the tree; I have hidden, ashamed, from the face of God, For I dreamed that He could not 6ee. The 'flaming sword of the Angel of Wrath' Has driven me over the earth; I am marked with the mark of the murderer Cain;

I have travelled <at death and at birth. With patriarch, priest, and prophet, I seek for a Promised Land; Lead me, • brother; follow me, brother; brother < oh, take my hand! I am moving onward and ever on; 0 brother, I may not stand.

I have made my children the slaves of trade, And scarred their backs with the rod"; For a bag of gold-with & sword of steel I have broken the laws of God. But whenever a cause demands my life, . I have laid, it down with a will; For honor and lov© and a heart-wrung cry -,'■■■■ X I can play the hero still. . My feet are firm on the steep,-straight way, though I doubt if I understand ; { ■■■■'■ Whether you lead or^ follow me. brother/let us go hand in hand] And stay not behind, dear brother ot mine, on the road to the Promised Land. —IRENE McKEEHAN.