In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses

<h2> The Sliprails and the Spur </h2> <p>The colours of the setting sun<br/> Withdrew across the Western land &mdash;<br/> He raised the sliprails, one by one,<br/> And shot them home with trembling hand;<br/> Her brown hands clung &mdash; her face grew pale &mdash;<br/> Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim! &mdash;<br/> One quick, fierce kiss across the rail,<br/> And, 'Good-bye, Mary!' 'Good-bye, Jim!'<br/> <br/> <i>Oh, he rides hard to race the pain<br/> Who rides from love, who rides from home;<br/> But he rides slowly home again,<br/> Whose heart has learnt to love and roam.</i><br/> <br/> A hand upon the horse's mane,<br/> And one foot in the stirrup set,<br/> And, stooping back to kiss again,<br/> With 'Good-bye, Mary! don't you fret!<br/> When I come back' &mdash; he laughed for her &mdash;<br/> 'We do not know how soon 'twill be;<br/> I'll whistle as I round the spur &mdash;<br/> You let the sliprails down for me.'<br/> <br/> She gasped for sudden loss of hope,<br/> As, with a backward wave to her,<br/> He cantered down the grassy slope<br/> And swiftly round the dark'ning spur.<br/> Black-pencilled panels standing high,<br/> And darkness fading into stars,<br/> And blurring fast against the sky,<br/> A faint white form beside the bars.<br/> <br/> And often at the set of sun,<br/> In winter bleak and summer brown,<br/> She'd steal across the little run,<br/> And shyly let the sliprails down.<br/> And listen there when darkness shut<br/> The nearer spur in silence deep;<br/> And when they called her from the hut<br/> Steal home and cry herself to sleep.<br/> <br/> . . . . .<br/> <br/> {Some editions have four more lines here.}<br/> <br/> <i>And he rides hard to dull the pain<br/> Who rides from one that loves him best;<br/> And he rides slowly back again,<br/> Whose restless heart must rove for rest.</i><br/></p> <p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"></SPAN></p> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />