.

Certainly no sweeter suggestion could have been more tenderly carried
out than that which led these bereaved women to spread flowers over the
graves of those who were once their enemies. Mr. Finch was told of this
incident, and the lines he wrote show his appreciation of the "generous
deed." The poem, "The Blue and the Gray," did much to heal the wounds in
both North and South.

The two poems by Judge Francis Miles Finch are quoted here, the first
with the drum-beat pulsing through it; the second in musical, flowing
lines that carry in them sorrow, loyalty, and the community of a common
bereavement.

HALE'S FATE AND FAME

And one there was--his name immortal now--
Who dies not to the ring of rattling steel,
Or battle-march of spirit-stirring drum,
But, far from comrades and from friendly camp,
Alone upon the scaffold.

To drum-beat and heart-beat
A soldier marches by;
There is color in his cheek,
There is courage in his eye,
Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat
In a moment he must die.

By starlight and moonlight
He seeks the Briton's camp,
He hears the rustling flag,
And the armed sentry's tramp.
And the starlight and moonlight
His silent wanderings lamp.

With slow tread and still tread
He scans the tented line,
And he counts the battery guns
By the gaunt and shadowy pine,
And his slow tread and still tread
Give no warning sign.

The dark wave, the plumed wave!
It meets his eager glance;
And it sparkles 'neath the stars
Like the glimmer of a lance:
A dark wave, a plumed wave,
On an emerald expanse.

A sharp clang, a steel clang!
And terror in the sound;
For the sentry, falcon-eyed,
In the camp a spy hath found;
With a sharp clang, a steel clang,
The patriot is bound.

With calm brow, steady brow,
He listens to his doom;
In his look there is no fear
Nor a shadow trace of gloom;
But with calm brow and steady brow
He robes him for the tomb.

In the long night, the still night,
He kneels upon the sod;
And the brutal guards withhold
E'en the solemn Word of God!
In the long night, the still night,
He walks where Christ hath trod.

'Neath the b