THE SAILOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21100, 6 February 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE SAILOR.

Be whispered a word or two, an old grey man, Dying, alone and poor, on a summer day Jn » country poorhonse. I heard liiin say .One word; and a smile came into his eyes, [And his look was odd—|As though, it) a pleased surprise he had / met with God. His face was furrowed and lean, [And his skin was tanned; jAnfl ho murmured: "The things Ive f* She was undermanned; but, we brought her through." iEre.liis old eyes cloned, smiling he looked at me, [And " Ships!" was the word he murmured f Ships on another sea !" JAnd it seemed, as he died, that I heard a far-off cry: O'he ring of a sailors' song and his parting breath {Was joined to that distant singing as though in u«3ath Ho had leapt to the windlass bar,-and // heaved again, Housing an anchor up to an aid refrain. 'They buried him there, in an unmarked grave, Bv the side of the great high road JJowti which he had slowly wandered with his peddlar's load Strapped to his bowed frame. There is no name there: but a ship flies [With a murmur of song on the midnight sky. sAnd again I hear his voice, as he says to me: f*Ships: Thank God! there are ships—and there is another sea." From Ilitsi Hose, Turua. (Copied).