swear that
he'll be true.

I sometimes fear that he may die, but never that
he'll shirk;
If death shall want him death must go and take
him at his work;
This splendid sacrifice he makes is filled with
terrors grim,
And I have many thoughts of fear, but not one
fear of him.

The foe may rob my life of joy, the foe may
take my all,
And desolate my days shall be if he shall have to
fall.
But this I know, whate'er may be the grief that
I must face,
Upon his record there will be no blemish of
disgrace.

His days have all been splendid days, there lies
no broken trust
Along the pathway of his youth to molder in
the dust;
Honor and truth have marked his ways, in him
I can be glad;
He is as fine and true a son as ever a father had.

Runner McGee

(Who had "Return if Possible" Orders.)

"You've heard a good deal of the telephone
wires," he said as we sat at our ease,
And talked of the struggle that's taking men's
lives in these terrible days o'er the seas,
"But I've been through the thick of the thing
and I know when a battle's begun,
It isn't the phone you depend on for help. It's
the legs of a boy who can run.

"It isn't because of the phone that I'm here.
To-day you are talking to me
Because of the grit and the pluck of a boy. His
title was Runner McGee.
We were up to our dead line an' fighting alone;
some plan had miscarried, I guess,
And the help we were promised had failed to
arrive. We were showing all signs of
distress.

"Our curtain of fire was ahead of us still, an'
theirs was behind us an' thick,
An' there wasn't a thing we could do for ourselves--the
few of us left had to stick.
You haven't much chance to get central an' talk
on the phone to the music of guns;
Gettin' word to the chief is a matter right then
that is up to the fellow who runs.

"I'd sent four of 'em back with the R. I. P.
sign, which means to return if you can,
But none of 'em got through the curtain of fire;
my hurry call died with the man.
Then Runner McGee said he'd try to get through.
I hated to order the kid
On his mission of death; thought