ay down in the night,
She and the child, to die.

But it would wail, and wail,
And wail. She crept away.
She had no word to say,
Yet still she heard the wail.

She took a jagged stone;
She wished it to be dead.
She beat it on the head;
It only gave one moan.

She has no word to say;
She sits there in the night.
The east sky glints with light,
And it is Christmas Day!

"WHY!"

"_Why is it we toil so_?
_Where go all the gains_?
_What do we produce for it_,
_All our pangs and pains_?"

Why it is we toil so,
Is it because, like sheep,
Since our fathers sought the shears,
We the same course keep.

Where go all the gains? Well,
It must be confessed,
First the landlords take the rent,
And the masters take the rest.

What do we produce for it?
Gentlemen!--and then
Imitation snobs who'd be
Like the gentlemen!

"_What_, _is it for such as these_
_That we suffer thus_?
_Fuddle-brained and vicious fools_,
_Vermin venomous_?

"_What_, _is that why on the top_
_Creeps that Royal Louse_,
_The prince of pheasants and cigars_,
_Of ballet-girls and grouse_?"

Yes, that's why, my Christian friends,
They slave and slaughter us.
England is made a dunghill that
Some bugs may breed and buzz.

A VISITOR IN THE CAMP.
To MARY ROBINSON. {27}

"_What_, _are you lost_, _my pretty little lady_?
_This is no place for such sweet things as you_.
_Our bodies_, _rank with sweat_, _will make you sicken_,
_And_, _you'll observe_, _our lives are rank lives too_."

"Oh no, I am not lost! Oh no, I've come here
(And I have brought my lute, see, in my hand),
To see you, and to sing of all you suffer
To the great world, and make it understand!"

"_Well_, _say_! _If one of those who'd robbed you thousands_,
_Dropped you a sixpence in the gutter where_
_You lay and rotted_, _would you call her angel_,
_For all her charming smile and dainty air_?"

"Oh no, I come not thus! Oh no, I've come here
With heart indignant, pity like a flame,
To try and help you!"--"_Pretty little lady_,
_It will be best you go back whence you came_."

"'_Enthusiasms_' _we have such little time for_!
_In our rude camp we drill the whole day long_.
_When we return from o