ord from Uncle Sam,
The concourse was a perfect jam.
'Twas built by Alexander Christie,
From the land of mountains misty;
And though the whirlwind and the storm
For years have revelled on its form--
Though ponderous loads for many a year
Have passed it o'er from from far and near,
It stands in strength unshaken still,
A monument of art and skill;
Long may the builder dash the tide
Of Jordan's swelling surge aside;
And when the lot of all mankind
Overtakes him, may he safely find
A bridge across to Canaan's shore,
To pass in peace death's valley o'er.
While rambling backwards up life's hill,
I meet the stern Paul Joseph Gill,
A man with much tuition fraught,
Who youth at the old creek side taught,
Where Thomas Dowsley doth display,
His maps of land for sale to-day.
Paul Joseph Gill could with a frown
Keep juvenile offenders down;
His ruler flat I can't forget,
My fingers seem to tingle yet,
As recollection o'er me brings
That ruler amongst other things,
Which come around me link by link,
While of the vanished past I think.
John Frost, too, rises up before
My vision of the time that's o'er;
He built upon foundation damp,
In Lower Town's great cedar swamp,
Which stretched from Sussex Street to where
That engineering structure fair--
The fond-admiring eye doth greet,
Spanning the stream at Ottawa Street.
And "Sandy" Graham, strange it is,
That I thus far his name should miss,
While tracing from the scenes gone by
Each unforgotten memory
Sandy was, aye, a joyous blade,
And many a good stroke of trade
He with commercial wisdom made,
In other times when he was young,
And Yankee silver round was flung
With lavish hand by low and high
In the good days of Colonel By.
And William Hunton, who came late,
If I am right, in '28,
And many a good quart of whiskey,
To make the old Bytonians frisky--
And many a pound of Twankay tea
And Muscovado vended he,
For Howard and Thompson in the time
When cash was plenty and trade prime.
Friend Tom a little later came,
A youth then of quite slender frame.
In form he's something still the same--
Though time has taken from his heel
The spring it used of old to feel.
And streaked his locks with silver, too,
Which long withstood all time could do,
Yet in the dream that's passed away
I see Tom Hunton of to-day.
CHAPTER V.
And John McGraves, the chandler, why
Could I so long have passed him by?
By accident I've turned a leaf
Which brings him out in bold relie
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