VARIOUS VERSES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8336, 19 January 1907, Page 3

VARIOUS VERSES.

\WHEN THE COWS COME HOME. At the Bohemian Club, in San Francisco, a very favourite recitation is "When the Cows Come Home." It is said that after its ■ delivery few eyes ,are dry. Of its author, Agnes E. Mitchqll, little is ; known : With klingle, klangle, klingle, 'Way down the dusty dingle, The cows are coming home; . Now sweet and clear, and faint and low, The airy twinklings come and go, Like chimings from. some far-off tower, • Or patterings of an April shower That makes the daisies grow; Ko-klark, ko-klark, ko-klingleingle, 'Way down the darkening dingle, The cows are coming home. .And old-time friends and twilight plays, -And starry nights and sunny days, Come, trooping up the misty ways When the cows come home. With jingle, jingle, jingle, Soft sounds that sweetly mingle, The cows ,are coming home. Malvine and Pearl and Florimel, De Kamp, Redrose, and Gretchen Schell. ■ Queen Bess, and Sylph, and Spangled Sue, Across the fields I hear her 00-00, "And clang her silver bell; Go-ling, go-lang, go lingleingle, With faint far sounds that'mingle The cows come slowly home; -And mother songs of long-gone years, And baby joys and childish tears, .And youthful hopes and youthful fears, When the cows come home. With rinsrle, rangle, ringle, By twos and threes and single, The cows are coming home; 'Through the violet air we see the town, -And the summer sun a-slipping down; The maple in the hazel glade '■■ Throws down the path a longer shade, And the hills are growing brown; To-ring, to-ring, to-ringleringle, By threes and fours and single, The cows come slowly home; ' The same sweet sound of wordless psalm, "The same sweet June-day rest and calm, I The same sweet scent of bud and balm, J When the cows come home. j With a tinkle, tankle, tinkle. Through fern and periwinkle, The cows are coming home; A.-loitering by the checkered stream, Where the sun-rays glance and gleam, Starine, Peachbloom, and Phoebe, Phyllis, • Stand knee-deep in the creamy lilies In a drowsy dream. To-link, to-lank, to linkleinkle, O'er the banks with buttercups a-twinkle. The cows come slowly home; And up through memory's deep ravine Come the brook's old song and its old time sheen, * And the crescent of the silver queen, When the cows come home. With a klingle, klangle, klingle, With a 100-00, and moo-oo and jingle, The cows are coming home; „ And over there on Morlin Hill, Hear the plaintive cry of the whip-poor-will ' The dewdrops lie'on the tangled vine, And over the poplar Venus shines, And over the silent mill; Ko-ling, ko-lang, ko-lingleingle; With a ting-aling and jingle The cows come slowly home; ~ Let down the bars; let in the train 'Of "long-gone songs, and flowers and rain, iFor dear old times come back again When the cows come home. THE WEAPONED MAN. The Freeman. . . was the "unweaponed man," who alone bore , sword and shield —Green's History. When oak woods grew where barley waves, And bare downs faced the sky, *• Untrodden save by Winter wolves, ■ Where now great cities lie, The fathers of our Saxon folk^ (Sires of our blood and bone), Set up their thdrps and homesteads, Self-centred and alone. ' They were not over-masterful ' Nor braggart in their pride, But the freeman's badge was the . spear in hand And the war-sword at his side; And w T hen the arrow splinter came To muster great and small, ' The man who stood unarmed that day Was weakling, priest, or thrall. When we waged the war of a hundred years, Or. marched to Flodden fray, ' Small need was there;for time or toil To marshal our array. Each yeoman'sjchimney held its bow, Each manor, jack and spear, And every churl could handle steel, To guard his goods and gear. Now cities gather them goods and gold, With ships on every sea, And the Guilds of Craft wax fat and proud, And every hind is free; And no man wears a weaponed belt, Save he whose trade is war, Yet —weaponless men are thralls at heart, As it was in the days of yore. —Cymric ap Einion, in the Spectator. THE THOUGHT OF THE TIME. ' Time having chosen a? thought, Flings it farjout into space, Where Jin all-conquering race, Spite of strong foes bent on chase, Unto mankind it is Jin-ought. • Stubbornly, fiercely its foes, Bondman, and coward, and slave. Bound the new thought roar "and rave. But while they guard its old grave • Onward on free wing it gpes —From the German.