fiddle--er dig some bait
And go a-fishin'--er pitch hoss shoes
Out in the shade somewhurs, and wait
For dinner-time, with an appetite
Ut folks in town cain't equal quite!
To laze around the barn and poke
Fer hens' nests--er git up a match
Betwixt the boys, and watch 'em scratch
And rassle round, and sweat and swear
And quarrel to their hearts' content;
And me a-jes' a-settin' there
A-hatchin' out more devilment!
What sort o' Sunday would that be?...
Wisht I hed you home with me!

SOLDIERS HERE TO-DAY

I

Soldiers and saviours of the homes we love;
Heroes and patriots who marched away,
And who marched back, and who marched on above--
All--all are here to-day!

By the dear cause you fought for--you are here;
At summons of bugle, and the drum
Whose palpitating syllables were ne'er
More musical, you come!

Here--by the stars that bloom in fields of blue,
And by the bird above with shielding wings;
And by the flag that floats out over you,
With silken beckonings--

Ay, here beneath its folds are gathered all
Who warred unscathed for blessings that it gave--
Still blessed its champion, though it but fall
A shadow on his grave!

II

We greet you, Victors, as in vast array
You gather from the scenes of strife and death--
From spectral fortress walls where curls away
The cannon's latest breath.

We greet you--from the crumbling battlements
Where once again the old flag feels the breeze
Stroke out its tattered stripes and smooth its rents
With rippling ecstasies.

From living tombs where every hope seemed lost--
With famine quarantined by bristling guns--
The prison pens--the guards--the "dead-line" crossed
By--riddled skeletons!

From furrowed plains, sown thick with bursting shells--
From mountain gorge, and toppling crags o'erhead--
From wards of pestilential hospitals,
And trenches of the dead.

III

In fancy all are here. The night is o'er,
And through dissolving mists the morning gleams;
And clustered round their hearths we see once more
The heroes of our dreams.

Strong, tawny faces, some, and some are fair,
And some are marked with age's latest prime,
And, seer-like, browed and aureoled with hair
As hoar as wi