p. 10 | A LESSON IN LIFE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 27, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 48.

A LESSON IN LIFE.

I was up near the city road one day, Some men were digging a drain; The sky was dark, and the streets were gray With a misty, drizzling rain; I had done my work and was hurrying by, But one is bound to know What's up when he hears a frightened cry And a crowd begins to grow.

Ill news flies fast. The word was passed: “The drain!” “the props!” and “save!” The earth had slipped, and the men were fast— Three souls in a living grave. They had mates at hand, by luck, poor chaps, Who hurried with pick and rope; Thought I, they’ll dig ’em out sharp perhaps, But little the worse, let’s hope.

So I stood and watched them for a while, As I’d nothing else to do. They threw the earth in a goodly pile, And one of the lads got through. “Hurrah!” went up from the waiting throng And ran through the misty air. A girl I knew came running along, And sighted me standing there.

“O Jem!” she gasped; “can’t you help? Go—go.” And she seized and shook my arm; “Your brother is there—is buried below! And you standing there so calm!”

“My brother!” Then in a second’s space I was digging away like mad— Fearing to light on his poor dead face— The only brother I had.

And I got him out with a bruise or two, But nothing of harm beside; You’d scarcely think what I say is true, But I fair broke down and cried, To think I’d been standing staring there When my kin was like to die, Letting the others do all my share, Out of sheer stupidity.

It seems to me when I come to think, That our life on earth goes so; Some standing safely upon the brink, Some sunk in the depths below; And I’m sure if people only knew That their brothers were like to die, They’d hasten to see what they could do, Instead of just standing by. —Selected.