Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/93

Rh Then with a groan:

"No luck ever. Well! I must die alone."

Occasional rifles cracked. A cloud that shone,

Gold-rimmed, blackened the sun and then was gone

The sun still smiled. The grass sang in its play.

Some one whistled, "Over the hills and far away."

Gates watched silently the swift, swift sun

Burning his life before it was begun

Suddenly he heard Corporal Timmins' voice: "Now, then,

'Urry up with that tea."

"Hi Ginger!" "Bill." His men!

Timmins and Jones and Wilkinson ("the bard")

And Hughes and Simpson. It was hard

Not to see them: Wilkinson, stubby, grim,

With his "No, sir," "Yes, sir," and the slim

Simpson, "Indeed, sir?" [while it seemed he winked

Because his smiling left eye always blinked]

And Corporal Timmins, straight and blonde and wise,

With his quiet-scanning, level, hazel eyes,

And all the others tunics that didn't fit

A dozen different sorts of eyes. Oh, it

Was hard to lie there! Yet he must. But no:

"I've got to die. I'll get to them. I'll go."

Inch by inch he fought, breathless and mute,

Dragging his carcase like a famished brute

His head was hammering and his eyes were dim,

A bloody sweat seemed to ooze out of him