"'The Governor listened to it all with a set face.Then he smiled at them with supernatural assurance.They were fools, he said, and people of little wit, and he flung the better part of the Book of Job at their heads.The Lord kens where the man got his uncanny knowledge of the Labonga.He had all their heathen customs by heart, and he played with them like a cat with a mouse.He told then they were damned rascals to make such a stramash, and damned fools to think they could frighten the white man by their demonstrations.There was no brag about his words, just a calm statement of fact.At the same time, he said, he had no mind to let any one wrong his children, and if any wrong had been done it should be righted.It was not meet, he said, that the young men should be taken from the villages unless by their own consent, though it was his desire that such young men as could be spared should have a chance of earning an honest penny.
And then he fired at them some stuff about the British Empire and the King, and you could sec the Labonga imbibing it like water.
The man in a cocked hat might have told them that the sky was yellow, and they would have swallowed it.
"'"I have spoken," he says at last, and there was a great shout from the young men, and old Umgazi looked pretty foolish.
They were coming round our horses to touch our stirrups with their noses, but the Governor stopped them.
"'"My children will pile their weapons in front of me." says he, " to show me how they have armed themselves, and likewise to prove that their folly is at an end.All except a dozen," says he, "whom I select as a bodyguard." And there and then he picked twelve lusty savages for his guard, while the rest without a cheep stacked their spears and guns forenent the big drum.
"'Then he turned to us and spoke in English."Get back to the mines hell-for-leather, and tell them what's happening, and see that you get up some kind of a show for to-morrow at noon.Iwill bring the chiefs, and we'll feast them.Get all the bands you can, and let them play me in.Tell the mines fellows to look active for it's the chance of their lives."Then he says to the Labonga, "My men will return he says, "but as for me I will spend the night with my children.Make ready food, but let no beer be made, for it is a solemn occasion.""'And so we left him.I will not descrihe how I spent last night mysel', but I have something to say about this remarkable phenomenon.I could enlarge on the triumph of mind over matter.
....
"Mackay did not enlarge.He stopped, cocked his ears, and looked down the road, from which came the strains of 'Annie Laurie,'
played with much spirit but grievously out of tune.Followed 'The British Grenadiers,' and then an attempt at 'The March of the Priests.' Mackay rose in excitement and began to crane his disreputable neck, while the band--a fine scratch collection of instruments--took up their stand at the end of the street, flanked by a piper in khaki who performed when their breath failed.Mackay chuckled with satisfaction.'The deevils have entered into the spirit of my instructions,' he said.'In a wee bit the place will be like Falkirk Tryst for din.
"Punctually at twelve there came a great hullabaloo up the road, the beating of drums and the yelling of natives, and presently the procession hove in sight.There was Tommy on his horse, and on each side of him six savages with feather head-dress, and shields and war-paint complete.After him trooped about thirty of the great chiefs, walking two by two, for all the world like an Aldershot parade.They carried no arms, but the bodyguard shook their spears, and let yells out of them that would have scared Julius Caesar.Then the band started in, and the piper blew up, and the mines people commenced to cheer, and I thought the heavens would fall.Long before Tommy came abreast of me Iknew what I should see.His uniform looked as if it had been slept in, and his orders were all awry.But he had his head flung back, and his eyes very bright, and his jaw set square.He never looked to right or left, never recognised me or anybody, for he was seeing something quite different from the red road and the white shanties and the hot sky."The fire had almost died out.Thirlstone stooped for a moment and stirred the peats.
"Yes," he said, "I knew that in his fool's ear the trumpets of all Asia were ringing, and the King of Bokhara was entering Samarkand."BABYLON
(The Song of NEHEMIAH'S WorkmenHow many miles to Babylon?
'Three score and ten.
Can I get there by candle-light?
Yes, and back again.
We are come back from Babylon, Out of the plains and the glare, To the little hills of our own country And the sting of our kindred air;To the rickle of stones on the red rock's edge Which Kedron cleaves like a sword.
We will build the walls of Zion again, To the glory of Zion's lord.
Now is no more of dalliance By the reedy waters in spring, When we sang of home, and sighed, and dreamed, And wept on remembering.
Now we are back in our ancient hills Out of the plains and the sun;But before we make it a dwelling-place There's a wonderful lot to be done.
The walls are to build from west to east, From Gihon to Olivet, Waters to lead and wells to clear, And the garden furrows to set.
From the Sheep Gate to the Fish Gate Is a welter of mire and mess;And southward over the common lands 'Tis a dragon's wilderness.
The Courts of the Lord are a heap of dust Where the hill winds whistle and race, And the noble pillars of God His House Stand in a ruined place In the Holy of Holies foxes lair, And owls and night-birds build.
There's a deal to do ere we patch it anew As our father Solomon willed.
Now is the day of the ordered life And the law which all obey.
We toil by rote and speak by note And never a soul dare stray.
Ever among us a lean old man Keepeth his watch and ward, Crying, "The Lord hath set you free:
Prepare ye the way of the Lord."
A goodly task we are called unto, A task to dream on o' nights, --Work for Judah and Judah's God, Setting our lands to rights;Everything fair and all things square And straight as a plummet string.
