din.

"Punctually at twelve there came a great hullabaloo up the road, the
beating of drums and the yelling of natives, and presently the
procession hove in sight. There was Tommy on his horse, and on each
side of him six savages with feather head-dress, and shields and
war-paint complete. After him trooped about thirty of the great
chiefs, walking two by two, for all the world like an Aldershot parade.
They carried no arms, but the bodyguard shook their spears, and let
yells out of them that would have scared Julius Caesar. Then the band
started in, and the piper blew up, and the mines people commenced to
cheer, and I thought the heavens would fall. Long before Tommy came
abreast of me I knew what I should see. His uniform looked as if it
had been slept in, and his orders were all awry. But he had his head
flung back, and his eyes very bright, and his jaw set square. He never
looked to right or left, never recognised me or anybody, for he was
seeing something quite different from the red road and the white
shanties and the hot sky."

The fire had almost died out. Thirlstone stooped for a moment and
stirred the peats.

"Yes," he said, "I knew that in his fool's ear the trumpets of all Asia
were ringing, and the King of Bokhara was entering Samarkand."

BABYLON

(The Song of NEHEMIAH'S Workmen)

How many miles to Babylon?
'Three score and ten.
Can I get there by candle-light?
Yes, and back again.

We are come back from Babylon,
Out of the plains and the glare,
To the little hills of our own country
And the sting of our kindred air;
To the rickle of stones on the red rock's edge
Which Kedron cleaves like a sword.
We will build the walls of Zion again,
To the glory of Zion's lord.

Now is no more of dalliance
By the reedy waters in spring,
When we sang of home, and sighed, and dreamed,
And wept on remembering.
Now we are back in our ancient hills
Out of the plains and the sun;
But before we make it a dwelling-place
There's a wonderful lot to be done.

The walls are to build from west to east,
From Gihon to Olivet,
Waters to lead and wells to clear,
And the garden furrows to set.
From the Sheep Gate to the Fish Gate
Is a welter of mire and mess;
And southward over the common lands
'Tis a dragon's wilderness.

The Courts of the Lord are a heap of dust
Where the hill winds whistle and race,
And the noble pillars of God His H