For fear I should see on the floor the shoes of the

child I have lost.-



There were three of us once in the world ; but two

are deep down in the' sea,
Where waif and where tangle are hurled — the two

that were portions of me ;
They are far from me now, but I hear, when hushed

are the night and the tide,
The voice of my little one near — the step of my

wife by my side.
HOW THE MELBOURNE CUP WAS
WON

TN the beams of a beautiful day,

Made soft by a breeze from the sea.
The horses were started away,

The fleet-footed thirty and three ;
Where beauty, with shining attire.
Shed more than a noon on the land,
Like spirits of thunder and fire

They flashed by the fence and the stand.
And the mouths of pale thousands were hushed

When Somnus, a marvel of strength.
Past Bowes like a sudden wind rushed.
And led the bay colt by a length ;
But a chestnut came galloping through,

And, down where the river-tide steals,
O'Brien, on brave Waterloo,

Dashed up to the big horse's heels.
309



310 THE MELBOURNE CUP

But Cracknell still kept to the fore,

And first by the water bend wheeled,
When a cry from the stand, and a roar,

Ran over green furlongs of field ;
Far out by the back of the course —

A demon of muscle and pluck —
Flashed onward the favourite horse,

With his hoofs flaming clear of the ruck.
But the wonderful Queenslander came.
And the thundering leaders were three ;
And a ring, and a roll of acclaim.
