Page 271 - 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 ...

“ Don’t be afraid, Bill,” said he to himself, as lie stood in his coat o ’blue,
" Why, God J11 take care o ’ you, Bill, God'll take care o ’ you,"

He seemed to be loadin ’ an * firin ’ a gun, an ’ to act like a mail who
hears
The awful roar o ’ the battlefield a-soundin f in Ms cars;
I saw that the bullet had touched 3iis brain an' somehow made it blind,
With the picture o 1 war before his eyes an ’ the fear o ’ death in his mind,

I grasped his hand, an ' says I to Bill, '* Don't ye remember me?
I'm y^r father— don't ye know me? How frightened ye seem to be! ”
Rut the boy kep ’ a-whisperin ’ to himself, as if Jtwas all he knew,
" God 'H take cave o 1 you, Bill, God'll take care o 1 you."

He's never known us since that day, nor his sweetheart, an ’ never will;
Father an 1 mother an ’ sweetheart are all the same to Bill.
An ' many’s the time his mother sets up the whole night through,
A ll' smooths his head, and says : Yes, Bil!, Godll take care o 1 you.'

Unfvrtimit? Yes, but w c can 't com plain. It’s a livin ’ death more Sad
When the body clings to a lift; o 3 shame an ’ the soul has gone to the bad ;
A n ' Bill is out o ’ the reach o ’ harm an f danger of every kind;
We only take care of his body, but God takes care o ' his mind.
I r v in g B ach e l l e r .

OUT A T SEA*
I K X O W that I am dying, mate; so fetch the Bible here,
What’s laid unopen in the chest for five and twenty year;
And bring a light along- of you, and read a bit to me,
W ho haven't heard a word of it since first I came to sea.

Its five and twenty year, lad, since she went to her rest,
W ho put that there old Bible at the bottom of my chest;
And I can well remember the words she says to me :
" Now, don’t forget to read it, Tom, when you get our to sea.1’
1G