“BIG MIKE FOX.”
A Noted Character and Pioneer in the Eastern Part of Essex County,
Ontario.
Big Mike was a giant Canadian
Who never was known to do
A mean or unmanly action;
His great heart was kind and true.
He loved with a steadfast devotion
The friends of his early youth;
And he fearlessly did his duty,
And as fearlessly spoke the truth.
He was a terror to evil-doers,
But a friend to the poor and old:
Big Mike had a home of plenty,
And a heart as good as gold.
He was one of nature’s noblemen,
One of Canada’s pioneers;
A specimen grand of true manhood,
Honored by fulness of years.
He hewed him a home from the forest—
Who has heard not of Big Mike’s fame
As an axeman and famous hunter
Of the red deer and savage game?
Yet his was a kindly nature,
Tender and void of guile;
His friends and neighbors all loved him,
And sought his approving smile.
He loved “this Canada of ours,”
And the grand old “Union Jack;”
And traitors did well to keep shady
When Big Mike located their track.
With an ever unswerving purpose,
He never was known to fail;
In pursuit of a worthy object
He never relinquished the trail.
When rebellion was in our borders,
Prepared for the coming fray,
He shouldered his trusty rifle,
And to the frontier marched away.
And bravely he did his duty
With his manly breast to the foe;
He was every inch a soldier
In those days that tried men so.
Big Mike heard voices in nature
That appealed to his thoughtful soul—
The sounds of the winds in the night-time,
And the thunder’s mighty roll;
The drip of the rain, and the sunshine,
And the shadows that fall between
The golden sunset and twilight hours,
And the beauty of night serene.
The songs of birds, the humming of bees,
The flowers that bloom by the way,
And the awesome tones of the forest,
Through the distance dim and gray.
The rill, the streamlet, and river,
That murmuringly onward flow;
The hills, and the towering mountains,
Cloud-capped in eternal snow.
The splendor of the starry ways,
And the awful solitude,
The frightful voids and the spaces vast,
The mystery of infinitude!
And all things that God hath created,
From the sea to the tiniest flower,
Were a source of proof and assurance
Of divine and mighty power.