It stands in strength unshaken still, A monument of art and skill; Long may the builder dash the tide Of Jordan's swelling surge aside; And when the lot of all mankind Overtakes him, may he safely find A bridge across to Canaan's shore, To pass in peace death's valley o'er. While rambling backwards up life's hill, I meet the stern Paul Joseph Gill, A man with much tuition fraught, Who youth at the old creek side taught, Where Thomas Dowsley doth display, His maps of land for sale to-day. Paul Joseph Gill could with a frown Keep juvenile offenders down; His ruler flat I can't forget, My fingers seem to tingle yet, As recollection o'er me brings That ruler amongst other things, Which come around me link by link, While of the vanished past I think. John Frost, too, rises up before My vision of the time that's o'er; He built upon foundation damp, In Lower Town's great cedar swamp, Which stretched from Sussex Street to where That engineering structure fair-- The fond-admiring eye doth greet, Spanning the stream at Ottawa Street. And "Sandy" Graham, strange it is, That I thus far his name should miss, While tracing from the scenes gone by Each unforgotten memory Sandy was, aye, a joyous blade, And many a good stroke of trade He with commercial wisdom made, In other times when he was young, And Yankee silver round was flung With lavish hand by low and high In the good days of Colonel By. And William Hunton, who came late, If I am right, in '28, And many a good quart of whiskey, To make the old Bytonians frisky-- And many a pound of Twankay tea And Muscovado vended he, For Howard and Thompson in the time When cash was plenty and trade prime. Friend Tom a little later came, A youth then of quite slender frame. In form he's something still the same-- Though time has taken from his heel The spring it used of old to feel. And streaked his locks with silver, too, Which long withstood all time could do, Yet in the dream that's passed away I see Tom Hunton of to-day. CHAPTER V.