Page:Soldier poets, songs of the fighting men, 1916.djvu/61

Rh And so it came to pass

That, having lately come to his fifth year,

One evening he was playing on the grass,

Bestriding his toy engine, not less dear

For being old and quaint,

Batter'd and wooden and devoid of paint;

And by it stood a Chinaman of tin,

His wagging head now still,

Perchance because the trumpet at his side

Awhile had ceas'd to fill

His ears with din;

And happy in his playthings was the child.

But suddenly his brown eyes open'd wide

And he no longer smil'd

But in a pensive posture held his head,

As tho' the fastness of his young content

Had been assail'd by doubt and wonderment

And threaten'd were his joys:

Until at last he slowly spake and said—

"Daddy, has God got any toys?"

On Zeppelin Picquet:

HRISTMAS EVE and we stared at the sky

Where the clouds and the stars went galloping by,

And strict was the watch we kept for the flight

Of the death-dealing terror that flieth by night.

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