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Turning the share, and tireing the wheel,
Master workmen in iron and steel.

There they had stood from the oldest time,
Toiling and moiling in smoke and grime,
Upright and downright, steady and true,
Doing the work GOD gave them to do;
While the land had been held by chartered right,
Two hundred years and maintained by right
Of their good right hand, from father to son,
Steadily held as honestly won.

So that clear as the right of the king to his crown,
Was the right of the smith to have and to own
Homestead and smithy, garden and croft,
With all below and all aloft;

As high as the stars and as deep as the fires,
Full and free as the heart's desires;

So ran the charter, fair to see,

Dated 1010 A. D.

But might makes right when kings grow white
With anger, and the lurid light

Burns in their eyes men fear to see,
Bending before the majesty

Of one whose wrath is as the path

Of the lion, from which all things flee.
He tossed the cover away from his couch,
And they say he swore, but I will not vouch

For that, though we read kings have been known
To swear in their wrath like the veriest clown.
I only know he called the guard,

Whose place it was to keep watch and ward,

Bid them go forth and raze to the ground
That forge, until no stone was found

To stand on another, and bring the smith
Into the royal presence forthwith,

To hear his doom, who had dared to make
This clamor, and keep their king awake.
So, alas for the day, if "What shall he say
Who comes after the king" be Bible true.
For what shall befall, be you freeman or thrall,
When the king in his wrath comes after you?
Swiftly the guard went up to the glen,
To bring the smith with his stalwart men
Into the presence of majesty -

And they answered no word, but quietly
Came forth of the smithy into the hall,
And ranged themselves against the wall,
With leathern apron and grimy face.
Each man stood in his proper place,
Forgemen and strikers, a hundred strong,
To fight the battle of right with wrong;
While the folk flocked in from far and near,
Strong in courage or stricken with fear;
They crowded the palace to hear and see
How the smith would answer his majesty.

And this was the way he answered the king:
"If might makes right, then my anvil's ring
Must be heard all the same in this good free land,
For no royal word can stay the hand

Of the smith in his forge, or royal might

Silence anvil and hammer. I stand on my right.

In the great old time they made this rhyme,
And carved it in runes on a stone:

By hammer and hand

All things do stand.'

So I counsel thee let us alone;

And if thou would'st sleep while we work all day,

Move thy new palace out of my way;

For the smith in his forge is also a king,

No matter what may befall,

And when his hammer ceases to ring,

Thy kingdom will go to the wall.

"Who shoes the horses, and forges the brand
Strong and sure for thy soldiers' hand,

That the foe may be met in the battle array?
The master smith and his men alway.

Who turns the share and tires the wheel?
The master workman in iron and steel.
Who forges the tools for mason and wright,
To build thy walls, whose massive might
Defies the foe and the tooth of time?

The men of my craft for whose sake the rhyme
Was made and carven on the stone,

The master smith and his men alone.
There is my answer now what say ye,
Free-born men to his majesty?"

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It was long ago and far away,

To the east of sunrise the legends say,
When this thing was done on a summer's day;
And from that time forth, for ever and aye,

This law was laid down for each and all,
King and commoner, freeman or thrall;
That wherever the smith shall set his forge,
In town or hill or by mountain gorge,
Holding the same by lawful right,

And honestly working with the might
Of his good right hand;

Then no matter what clamor

He may happen to make with his anvil and hammer,

He shall still be free to hold his own,

And be proud of his cap as the king of his crown; Because, but for his making no thing could be made,

And so none shall molest him or make him afraid;
So the folk-mote laid down the law, and then
It was signed and sealed with the great Amen!

HYMN

UNTO thy temple, Lord, we come
With thankful hearts to worship thee;
And pray that this may be our home
Until we touch eternity:-

The common home of rich and poor,
Of bond and free, and great and small;
Large as thy love for evermore,

And warm and bright and good to all.

And dwell thou with us in this place,
Thou and thy Christ, to guide and bless!
Here make the well-springs of thy grace
Like fountains in the wilderness.

May thy whole truth be spoken here;

Thy gospel light forever shine;

Thy perfect love cast out all fear,
And human life become divine.

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