Proud of our flag and traditions; proud, but not boastfully so; Dreaming our dreams and our visions, planning the way we would go; Saying, "This task for to-morrow; life shall be clay in our hands; We shall be first of the nations, fattest and fairest of lands". Then in the quivering heaven gathered the threatening wrath; We looked--and went on with our labours; heard, and replied with a laugh; Surely the world was for business; (list to the hammer and spade); Leave the war-lords to their lusting--on with our traffic and trade! Then, in a flash, it was on us; blazed, and it dazzled our eyes; Then for a moment we faltered, suddenly sick with surprise; Next, by the blood that was in us, and a manhood not wholly undone, We were stripping the cloth for the khaki and dropping the spade for the gun. What of the men of the furrow, men of the hammer and spade, Men without heart for the soldier, loathing his life and his trade? What? Let the enemy answer; he scoffed at our fighters, and then The flower of his finest battalions went down to our peace-loving men. Well may the world read a lesson, well may it learn, and be wise; Not to the strong is the battle; not to the swift is the prize; Loud is the boast of the despot, clanking his nation in arms; _But beware of a peace-loving people when they sweep from their forests and farms!_ ROBERT J. C. STEAD _From "Kitchener and Other Poems"-- By permission of The Musson Book Company, Limited, Toronto_ DEVON MEN From Bideford to Appledore the meadows lie aglow With kingcup and buttercup that flout the summer snow; And crooked-back and silver-head shall mow the grass to-day, And lasses turn and toss it till it ripen into hay; For gone are all the careless youth did reap the land of yore, The lithe men and long men, The brown men and strong men, The men that hie from Bideford and ruddy Appledore. From Bideford and Appledore they swept the sea of old With cross-bow and falconet to tap the Spaniard's gold; They sped away with dauntless Drake to traffic on the Main, To trick the drowsy galleon and loot the treasure train; For fearless were the gallant hands that pulled the sweeping oar, The strong men, the free men, The bold men, the seamen, The men that sailed from Bideford and ruddy Appledore.