Page:Canadian Singers and Their Songs.djvu/99

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CANADIAN SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS

Killed In Action

My father lived his three-score years; my son
lived twenty-two;
One looked long back on work well done, and
one had all to do—
Yet which the better served his world, I know
not, nor do you!

To one, Life chattered all her lore, `Till he
grew wise and gray,
To one, she whispered only, ere she turned
her face away—
Yet which her deeper secret held only they
two might say.

Peace gave my father restful days, with
love and fame for wage;
War gave my son an unmarked grave, and
an unwritten page—
Who shall declare which gift conveyed
The greater heritage?

Isabel Ecclestone MacKay

BY PERMISSION OF FORUM.

95