IN MEMORIAM.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XII, Issue 2255, 5 March 1889, Page 2

IN MEMORIAM.

[Dedicated to the late Mr W. Rainbow, drowned in the Ngaruroro River while trying to save the life of a pupil.]

When, that bright morn, all Nature beamed and pulsed with life aud joy, And the glad thought : “ A holiday !” possessed each eager boy, Did the stern dominie refuse to grant the youngsters’ prayer ? Did he accede, and, with : “ Good riddance 1” seek his easiest chair ? “Ah, that’s more likely!” thus I hear the liberal critic say, “Of course ! The tiresome nuisances 1 He wished them far away 1” O Critic, what a noble and an easy mission yours is, To spout the kindly sentiments the world so oft endorses ! But here you’re wrong—the dominie sought not luxurious ease, But cast about to think how best he might amuse and please Those bright young hearts and eager minds that, twined*in endless length, Clung tendril-like, with sweet support, round his perfected strength. So he, with step as buoyant as theirs, yet somewhat graver poise, Set gaily forth to spend on earth his last •day with his boys. He joined the sport with sympathy, aud many a watchful hint, With keenest eye was first to catch the faintest fishy glint, He trimmed the lines, and set the hooks, and poised each limber rod, And, then with ready word and glance, lay stretched upon the sod. He was the useful, well-beloved big brother to the end ; In watchful care, a father ; in sympathy, a friend. Then came his need. The cry of peril struck his startled ear ! Without a thought but one—to thank his God that he was near— Straight to the place he dashed, and straight, with one deep, wistful breath, Into the whelmiug waters he plunged—but to his death ! Did he, think you, weigh chances, as he spurned the river-side— And fought to reach that drowning boy beneath the hungry tide ? Had he a thought of worthiness, of merits, or of creeds, As his great heart throbbed out its life among the clinging weeds ? Ah no 1 His latest fight, tho’ lost, was nobly, trebly won ! His password to eternal peace the sense of duty done! Let us rejoice that, ’mongst the ranks of those whose weighty charge And privilege it is to traiu, to nurture, to enlarge, To tend, enrich, and purify the virgin soil of youth And lead their hearts and minds alike toward eternal truth, We sti 11 can find men such as he whose threuody I sing Whose lives, tho’ humble, never cease their tuneful echoing, Whose teachings, life, and actions both illustrate aud prove The creed of human sympathy, the law of Christian love ! Let ignoramuses display their itch to pose as scribes, Let spiteful bigots vent their spleen in pointless diatribes ! But yet be comforted awhile, O dominies, say I, Such life were worth the living, with such a death to die ! Harold P. Burt.