Though cold was the dew on his hurrying feet And the blind bat's flitting startled him. Thrice since then had the lanes been white, For news had come to the lonely farm The summer day grew cool and late, He went for the cows when the work was done; But down the lane, as he opened the gate, He saw them coming one by one: Brindle, Ebony, Speckle, and Bess, Shaking their horns in the evening wind; Cropping the buttercups out of the grassBut who was it following close behind? Loosely swung in the idle air The empty sleeve of army blue; And worn and pale, from the crisping hair, For Southern prisons will sometimes yawn, The great tears sprang to their meeting eyes; For the heart must speak when the lips are dumb: And under the silent evening skies Together they followed the cattle home. SHERIDAN'S RIDE1 October 19, 1864 BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ Up from the South at break of day, And wider still those billows of war But there is a road from Winchester town, A good broad highway leading down; 1 By courtesy of J. B. Lippincott & Co. And there, through the flash of the morning light, A steed as black as the steeds of night He stretched away with the utmost speed; Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering South, The heart of the steed and the heart of the master Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play, With Sheridan only ten miles away. Under his spurning feet the road And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, The first that the General saw were the groups He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas, And the wave of retreat checked its course there, be cause The sight of the master compelled it to pause. With foam and with dust the black charger was gray; Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! 66 Here is the steed that saved the day By carrying Sheridan into the fight, From Winchester, twenty miles away!" 66 'HE'LL SEE IT WHEN HE WAKES " BY FRANK LEE [In "Bugle Echoes" Mr. Francis F. Browne introduces this poem with the following note: "In one of the battles in Virginia a gallant young Mississippian had fallen, and at night, just before burying him, there came a letter from his betrothed. One of the burial group took the letter and laid it upon the breast of the dead soldier, with the words: 'Bury it with him. He'll see it when he wakes.'"] Amid the clouds of battle-smoke The sun had died away, And where the storm of battle broke A thousand warriors lay. A band of friends upon the field Who, when the war-cloud's thunder pealed, The coming moonlight breaks, And each dear brother standing there A tender farewell takes. But ere they laid him in his home 66 No more amid the fiery storm Shall his strong arm be seen; Came all too late; but oh! thy love 66 Will see them when he wakes." |