Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/27



THE VOORLOOPERS.

hasten to their heritage, The guerdon of their days,

To labour long and wearily

For scanty gold or praise;

To toil unseen and overmuch,

And if their meed be fame,

To carve themselves an epitaph

To mark their place and name.

They hasten to their heritage,

The right to bridge and build,

To serve among the journeymen,

To suffer with the guild;

To plan the work, and found it fair,

And, ere 'tis gable high,

To pass the trowel to the next,

And turn aside to die.

They hasten to their heritage,

The tender and the tried;

Each tide beholds them outward bound, God wot, the field is wide.