'Twas a sleepy little chapel by a wattled hill erected,Where the storms were always muffled, and an atmosphere of peaceHung about beneath the gum-trees, and the garden was respectedBy the goats from Billybunga and the washer- woman's geese.In the week-days it was sacred to my young imaginationFrom its walls there oozed a sentiment of reverence profound;And on Sabbath morns the murmuring of the childish congregationSeemed to spread a benediction in the bush land far around.But when Brother Peetree prayed all the parrots flew dismayed,And the hill shook to its centre, and the trees and fences swayed;And we youngsters heard the rumble of the Day of Judgment there,When the pious superintendent wrestled manfully in prayer.
They were horny-handed Methodists, and men of scanty knowledge,Who controlled that 'little corner of the vine- yard' by the pound;Their theology was not the kind that's warranted at college,But their faith was most abundant, and their gospel always sound.Brother Peetree was a miner at the Band of Hope. His leisureHe employed in 'sticking porkers' for his neigh- bours, and his skillWas a theme of admiration; but his soul's sublimest pleasureWas to speak a prayer on Sunday in the chapel 'neath the hill.Froze the marrow in our bones at the sound of hollow groans,And the shrieks of moral anguish, and the awful thunder tones;And we saw the Hell-fire burning, and we smelt it in the air,When dear Brother Peetree struggled with the Lord of Hosts in prayer.
Brother Peetree always started with a murmured supplication,Knelt beside a form, serenely, with a meek, submissive face;But he rose by certain stages to a rolling ex- hortation,And a wild, ecstatic bellowing for sanctity and grace;And he threw his arms to heaven, and the seats went down before himAs he fought his way along the aisle, and prayed with might and main,With hysterical beseechings. Then a sudden peace fell o'er him,And he finished, sobbing softly, at his starting- point again.And the elders, to their ears pale with reverential fears,And the sisters and the choir indulged in hot, repentant tears;And the sinners for salvation did with eagerness declare,When beloved Brother Peetree wrestled mightily in prayer.