THE SHIPS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 64

THE SHIPS.

(By J. J. BELL, author of “Wee Macgreegor,” etc., etc.) For many a year 'l’ve watched the ships a-sailing to and fro, The mighty ships, the little ships, the . fast ones and the slow; And many 'a time I’ve told myself that someday I would go Around the world that is so full of wonders. The swift and stately liners, how they run without a rest! The great three-masters, they have touched the E’.ast and told the West! The monster burden- bearers —oh, they all have plunged and pressed Around the world that is so full of wonders! The cruiser and the battleship that loom as dark as doubt, The devilish destroyer, the hateful hooded scout — These deathly things may also rush, with roar and snarl and §hout, Around the world that is so full of wonders! My lord he owns a grand yacht, most beautiful and fine, But seldom does she leave the firth lest he Should fail to dine. I’d find a thousand richer feasts* than his —if she were mine—• Around the world that is so full of wonders. The shabby tramp that like a wedge is hammered through the seas, The little brown-sailed brigantine that traps the lightest breeze— Oh, I’d be well content to fare aboard the least of these, Around the world that is'so full of wonders. The things I’ve heard, the things I’ve read, the things I’ve dreamed might be, The boyish tales, the old men’s yarns, they will not pass from me. I’ve heard, I’ve read, I’ve dreamed. . . But all the time I’ve longed to see, Around the world that is so full of wonders. So year by year I watch the ships asailing to and fro, The ships that come as strangers, the ships I’ve learned to know. , . . Folk smile to hear an old man say that someday he will go Around the world that is so full of wonders.