Page 197 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

A RACB FOR LIFE.
I ) And the sunbeams smote like javelins through the pine boughs
”)R O A D over the grisly canon the noontide hot and red,

overhead,
Ann all the vailey faraway
A-quiver and scorching breathless lay.

Twining out from the unsunned forests, a serpent huge find strong,
'f’he railway rough and unballasted in the half-shade stretched along,
Creeping on a.-; if led of conscious wiles
To the unbridged canoivs dark defiles.

A rude, rough. station under the trees with groups of unkempt men;
Ai id with thro os of pent-up power, which chafed for vent again,
Two powcrM engines, burnished bright,
Stood panting in the sultry Jig lit.

R ex Pread with a .startled gesture hashed round in tlie station-door
For he heard 111 rough the talk and laughter the jar and gathering roar
Of moving wheels; and hark ! that shout—-
“ Tam Ainsworth's engine is lighting ou t!"

With a blaze as of summer lightning Rex saw— and his heart stood
still—
That long down grade io tb’ can0:1, the 11 wild engine” rushing at will
The trestle spanning the gorge bc'ow
And Ciie workmen swarming to and fro.

With a hap like a startled panther, through the Loafers dazed and pale.
Me was facing li:n, his fireman, with hand on the tenders rail:
"N ow fire her, Jim ! we must stop her. man ;
Give her all she'll bear! Yes, sir, we can !

The throttle valve's wide open, the road is clear before;
Jim flung, with the strength of -a demon, pine knots through the blaz­
ing door;