L'ENVOI 



THE following verses appeared in the Pioneer of 

 June 3Oth, 1911. They seem so applicable to my 

 own case that I venture to assume the author's 

 and the editor's permission to quote them: 



ICHABOD. 



" The picture of horse and places, 

 The tiger-skins spread in the hall, 

 The Asian's reports of old races, 

 The antlers of stags on the wall : 

 What dreams of dead days do they waken ? 

 What visions of past they recall ? 

 But what use to repine ? I have taken 

 My leave of it all. 



" What can I now turn to for pastime ? 

 I know, in mean streets as I walk, 

 That I've looked on it all for the last time: 

 The dripping laborious stalk, 

 The panther kill claw-marked and bitten, 

 The pug-marks fresh oozing in mud, 

 The trail of the tiger lung smitten, 

 All frothy with blood. 



" The bells of the cattle returning 

 At evening, the cry of the shepherd, 

 The smoke of the undergrowth burning, 

 The wood-sawing call of the leopard, 

 The beat, when the elephants' crashing 

 Grows steadily nearer and louder : 

 The fall of the trees they are smashing, 

 The swing of the howdah. 



The rifles lie idle in cases, 

 The spear-heads are eaten with rust, 

 Old age leaves indelible traces: 

 Life now is but ashes and dust 

 I'm weary of vain recollection, 

 Youth, nerve, and digestion have fled, 

 Butjcheer up ! There's one saving reflection. 

 Some day I'll be dead." 



J.C. 

 209 



