From Egypt, behind my oxen with their stately step and slow,Northward and east and west I went, to the desert sand and the snow;Down through the centuries, one by one, turning the clod to the shower,Till there"s never a land beneath the sun but has blosso- med behind my power.
I slid through the sodden rice-fields with my grunting, hump-backed steers;I turned the turf of the Tiber plain in Rome"s imperial years;I was left in the half-drawn furrow when Cincinnatus came,Giving his farm for the Forum"s stir to save his nation"s name.
Over the seas to the north I went-white cliffs and a sea- board blue;And my path was glad in the English grass as my stout,red Devons drew;My path was glad in the English grass, for behind me rippled and curledThe corn that was life to the sailor-men that sailed the ships of the world.
And later I went to the north again, and day by day drew downA little more of the purple hills to join to my kingdom brown;And the whaups wheeled out to the moorland, but the grey gulls stayed with me,Where the Clydesdales drummed a marching song with their feathered feet on the lea.
Then the new lands called me westward. I found, on the prairies wide,A toil to my stoutest daring and a foe to test my pride;But I stooped my strength to the stiff, black loam, and I found my labour sweet,As I loosened the soil that was trampled firm by a millionbuffaloes" feet.
Then farther away to the northward; outward and out- ward still(But idle I crossed the Rockies, for there no plough maytill!)Till I won to the plains unending, and there, on the edge of the snow,I ribbed them the fenceless wheat-fields, and taught themto reap and sow.
The sun of the Southland called me; I turned her the rich, brown linesWhere her Parramatta peach-trees grow and her green Mlldura vines;I drove her cattle before me and her slowly-dying sheep;I painted her rich plains golden, and taught her to sow and reap.
From Egypt, behind my oxen with stately step and slow,I have carried your weightiest burden, ye toilers that -reap and sow!
I am the Ruler, the King, and I hold the world in fee; Sword upon sword may ring, but the triumph shall rest with me!
Will H. Ogilvie.
Author.-William Henry Ogilvie was born in Scotland in 1869 and educated there. He arrived in Australia in 1889, and engaged in bush occupations for two years, during which time he was a contributor to several Australian papers and magazines. He returned to Scotlandin 1908. His works include Fair Girls and Grey Horses, Hearts of Gold., Rainbows and Witches, My Life in the Open, Whaup o" the Rede, The Land We Love, The Overlander, The Honour of the Station, The Australian, Galloping Shoes, Scattered Scarlet. From Australia he went to Scotland and to Canada, where he was a teacher in an agricultural college.
General Notes.-Egypt, Rome, England, America, Australia-what intervals of time and distance separate these civilizations? Name leading men in each of the countries. Cincinnatus, a Roman hero, was, in 485 B.C., called from the plough to be dictator. The Forum was the Roman market- place and scene of public meetings. Have a debate on "The Plough is greater than the Sword".
