Our king has wrote a lang letter,
And sealed it owre with gold;
He sent it to my lord Dunwaters,
To read it if he could.

He has not sent it with a boy, with a boy,
Nor with anie Scotch lord;
But he 's sent it with the noblest knight
Eer Scotland could afford.

The very first line that my lord did read,
He gave a smirkling smile;
Before he had the half o 't read,
The tears from his eyes did fall.

" Come saddle to me my horse," he said,
" Come saddle to me with speed;
For I must away to fair London town,

Our journey had advanced;
Our feet were almost come
To that odd fork in Being's road,
Eternity by term.

Our pace took sudden awe,
Our feet reluctant led.
Before were cities, but between,
The forest of the dead.

Retreat was out of hope, —
Behind, a sealed route,
Eternity's white flag before,
And God at every gate.

Our history is grave noble and tragic.
We trusted the look of the sun on the green leaves.
We built our towns of stone with enduring ornaments.
We worked the hard flint for basins of water.

We believed in the feel of the earth under us.
We planted corn grapes apple-trees rhubarb.
Nevertheless we knew others had died.
Everything we have done has been faithful and dangerous.

We believed in the promises made by the brows of women.
We begot children at night in the warm wool.
We comforted those who wept in fear on our shoulders.

Our God and soldiers we alike adore,
Ev'n at the brink of danger; not before:
After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God's forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.

Our garden's very near the trains;
I think it's jolly fine
That I have just to climb the fence
To watch the railway line!

I love to see the train that takes
A minute to the mile;
The engine-man, as he goes past,
Has only time to smile!

Then comes a train with empty trucks,
That never goes so fast;
Its driver-man has always time
To wave as he goes past!

The man who drives the luggage train,
That passes here at three,
Not only smiles and waves his hand,
But whistles once for me!

Our friends go with us as we go
Down the long path where Beauty wends,
Where all we love forgathers, so
Why should we fear to join our friends?

Who would survive them to outlast
His children; to outwear his fame —
Left when the Triumph has gone past —
To win from Age, not Time, a name?

Then do not shudder at the knife
That Death's indifferent hand drives home,
But with the Strivers leave the Strife,
Nor, after Caesar, skulk in Rome.

Our forefather once wished a wife,
A woman from another tribe.
He knew that she would not marry him
Neither for love nor bribe,
So he changed into a yellow dog
And followed her up the trail.
She patted his head, and fed him deer
And stepped upon his tail.
He followed her out into the woods
Very far away,
There he changed into a man again
And carried her off like a sack of hay.

I

Our fathers fought for Liberty,
They struggled long and well,
History of their deeds can tell —
But did they leave us free?

II

Are we free from vanity,
Free from pride, and free from self,
Free from love of power and pelf,
From everything that's beggarly?

III

Are we free from stubborn will,
From low hate and malice small,
From opinion's tyrant thrall?
Are none of us our own slaves still?

IV

Are we free to speak our thought,
To be happy, and be poor,
Free to enter Heaven's door,

1. Our Father! while our hearts unlearn The creeds that wrong thy name,
2. Not by the lightning-gleams of wrath Our souls thy face shall see,
Still let our hallowed altars burn With faith's undying flame!
The star of love must light the path That leads to heav'n and thee.

3. Help us to read our Master's will
Through every darkening stain
That clouds his sacred image still,
And see him once again,

4. The brother man, the pitying friend,
Who weeps for human woes,
Whose pleading words of pardon blend
With cries of raging foes.

Our father our all-wielding is,
God let us never His mirthes miss.
Lord, hallowed by Thy name.
In Heaven and earth Thy will
Be done and that is skill
Or else we been to blame.
Our each day's bread give us to-day
That we may trustily, when we shall away,
To come to Thy Kingdom.
God keep us to our last ending,
Let never the fiend with false fending
Cumber us in no shame.