TO MOTHER AFRICA 



AFTER TEN YEARS 



I was pretty young and foolish when I came, 



The things I knew were fairly few and smill — 

 I was eaten up with shame, hut you took me just the same, 

 A nd you tatight me. Mother Africa, to try and play the game 

 As men play it out beyond the City Wall. 



There are millions who know nothing of your spell, 



And revile you for your cruelty and pain — 

 " Out in Africa," they say, 

 " Men are lost and thrown away," 

 WE know better. Mother Africa ! your children come to stay, 



And they never scale the City Wall again I 



In ten long years I've learned to love the chain 

 [Though, sometimes, every fetter's bound to gall), 



Though you've tutored me in pain. 



If God grant me ten again, 



You shall have them. Mother Africa, so long as you remain 

 Untrammelled, and outside the City Wall. 



CuUen Gouldsbury in " From the Outposts." 



XVll 



