The Shepherd's Boy.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume X, Issue 2315, 25 February 1891, Page 2

The Shepherd's Boy.

' 'Yes, that's my boy there, my little Jim, Cute as a weka, and wise, I've nobody left to me now but him, Bless his bonnie blue eyes ! " Yes, it's a lonely life I own In a boundary hub out here, And Jim and I have been here alone For somef hing more'n two year. " Well, yes there's a story, stranger, While the billy boils for tea I'll tell you about Jim's mother As lef !> him alone with me. "I ain't much to look at now, it's true, My hair has whitened with care, And my brow has wrinkled with trouble That furrowed its impress there. " An' the life that you find me leading Don't lit m well with the past, But I wanted away from the world, sir, Till the sting of her shame had passed. " Dead 1 Aye, to me and to Jim there, As dead as-if laid m the carth— He never has called her ' Mother' From the hour that she gave him birth. ''For when he was only a baby She parted from me and Jim Her heart had been stol'n by another And she wandered away with him. " I ain't much at quotin' Scripfcur', But you might have heard at school GF a woman as fell through an apple An' a man as played the fool. " They talk of the justice of Heaven, I But is it a sin to doubt? When the tempter's so oft forgiven And the tempted weeps without. " Ah, yes, that's my little Jim there, Stranger, my story's plain May he ne'er know the shame of his mother, Nor share m his father's pain." Bill Roe.