The Gathering Call.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 22

The Gathering Call.

(For the N.Z. Free Lance.) The armies, the armies, from east and) west they come, Dost see the gleaming, bayonets? Dost hear the rolling drum? In Austral States, in Maoriland, and Canada, to-day They hear the sound, and now respond, in arms, to join the fray. They gather, they gather, at Truth's and Honour's call, To stay the evil power that tries the wide world to enthrall; To fight in lands where millions pine*. to set the captives free! . For this they leave their friends and homes, for this they cross the sea. The battle, the battle, it blazes fierce and far, In air and sea, by mount and plain, beneath the Polar Star; And some will not return again, the brave, the young who fall, For they have passed to realms beyond the sound of bugle call. The victory, the victory, 'tis coming,. like the day That surely follows night, and drives all nightmare dreams away; Then France shall have her own again, and raided lands be free, When bonds of peace are signed by all at Berlin, by the Spree. — J. C. Thomson.