Thoughts, Moods and Ideals: Crimes of Leisure | Page 8

thousand years--?Part of the old Indian world,?Thy breath from far the Indian cheers.?Back to thee, O Kanawaki!?Let the rapids dash between?Indian homes and white men's manners--?Kanawaki and Lachine!
O my dear!--O Knife-and-Arrows!?Thou art bronzed, thy limbs are lithe;?How I laugh as through the crosse-game,?Slipst thou like red elder withe.?Thou art none of these pale-faces!?When with thee I'll happy feel,?For thou art the Mohawk warrior?From thy scalp-lock to thy heel.
Sweet the K?noronkwa chorus?Floats across the current strong;?Clear behold the parish steeple?Rise the ancient walls among.?Speed us deftly, noiseless paddle:?In my shawl my bosom burns!?Kanawaki--"By the Rapid,"--?Thine own child to thee returns.
MONTREAL.
Reign on, majestic Ville Marie!?Spread wide thine ample robes of state;?The heralds cry that thou art great,?And proud are thy young sons of thee.?Mistress of half a continent,?Thou risest from thy girlhood's rest;?We see thee conscious heave thy breast?And feel thy rank and thy descent.
Sprung of the saint and chevalier!?And with the Scarlet Tunic wed!?Mount Royal's crown upon thy head,?And--past thy footstool--broad and clear?St. Lawrence sweeping to the sea;?Reign on, majestic Ville Marie!
ALL HAIL TO A NIGHT.
All hail to a night when the stars stand bright?Like gold dust in the sky;?With a crisp track long, and an old time song,?And the old time company.
Cho.--All hail to a night when the Northern Light
A welcome to us waves,?Then the snowshoer goes o'er the ice and the snows, And the frosty tempest braves.
The snowshoer's tent is the firmament;?His breath the rush of the breeze.?Earth's loveliest sprite, the frost queen at night,?Lures him silvery through the trees.
Yes, the snowshoer's queen is winter serene,?We meet her in the glade.?Dark-blue-eyed, a fair, pale bride,?In her jewelled veil arrayed.
Let us up then and toast to the uttermost?Fair winter! we knights of the shoe,?And in circle again join hearts with the men?That of old time toasted her too.
THE PIONEERS.
All you who on your acres broad,?Know nature in its charms,?With pictured dale and fruitful sod,?And herds on verdant farms,?Remember those who fought the trees?And early hardships braved,?And so for us of all degrees?All from the forest saved.
And you who stroll in leisured ease?Along your city squares,?Thank those who there have fought the trees,?And howling wolves and bears.?They met the proud woods in the face,?Those gloomy shades and stern;?Withstood and conquered, and your race?Supplants the pine and fern.
Where'er we look, their work is there;?Now land and men are free:?On every side the view grows fair,?And perfect yet shall be.?The credit's theirs, who all day fought?The stubborn giant hosts:?We have but built on what they wrought;?Theirs were the honor-posts.
Though plain their lives and rude their dress,?No common men were they;?Some came for scorn of slavishness?That ruled lands far away;?And some came here for conscience' sake,?For Empire and the King;?And some for Love a home to make,?Their dear ones here to bring.
First staunch men left, for Britain's name,?The South's prosperity;?And Highland clans from Scotland came--?Their sires had aye been free;?And England oft her legions gave?To found a race of pluck,?And ever came the poor and brave?And took the axe and struck.
Each hewed, and saw a dream-like home!--?Hewed on--a settlement!?Struck hard--through mists the spire and dome?The distant rim indent!?So honored be they midst your ease,?And give them well their due,?Honor to those who fought the trees?And made a land for you!
CANADIAN FAITH.
I.
In the name of many martyrs?Who have died to save their country,?Poured their fresh blood bravely for it,?And our soil thus consecrated;?In the name of Brock the peerless,?In the name of Spartan Dollard,?Wolfe and Montcalm--world's and ours--?The high spirit of Tecumseh;?Of the eight who fell at Cut Knife,?Bright in early bloom and courage,?When our youth leapt up for trial;?In the names of thousand others?Whom we proudly keep remembered?As our saviours from the Indian,?From the savage and the rebel,?Or from Hampton, or Montgomery?By Quebec's old faithful fortress;?And at Chrysler's Farm and Lundy;?And upon the lakes and ocean;?Or who lived us calmer service;--?Many is the roll, and sacred;--?In their names a voice is calling,?Through this native land of ours!
Hark, for we have need to listen!?All our martyrs warn and shame us.?Do not let them see us cowards!?Why are all these faint-heart whispers?In the very hour of progress?
Tattles of disquiet vex us,?And among us are new enemies--?Cowards, weak, ignoble whiners,?Esaus, placemen, low-browed livers,?Traitors, salesmen of a nation.?Some would have us drop despondent?And convince us we are nothing.?(Us of whom ten thousand heroes?Hitherto to here have conquered?And we must be faithful to them!)?Some are hypocrites and cynics;?Some would wreck us; some would leave us;?Even in the hour of peril?Would the hand of many fail us;?They would almost make to falter?Our old simple faith in God.
Therefore this appeal, O brothers,?Earnestly do I adjure you?To believe and trust your country.
By the glorious star of England,?Shining mast-high o'er all oceans;?In the name of France the glorious;?In the world-proud name of Europe;?Whence you draw your great traditions;?I adjure you trust your country!
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