:
'The men are marching back!'"

Amos was inclined to think that maybe Ann's question hadn't been such a
foolish one, after all.

"Perhaps," he ventured, "you knew my great-great-great-grandfather. Can
you tell me anything about him, sir?"

"I can tell you this," the old man said:--

"Your great-great-great-grandfather
Was a little chap like you,
When suddenly one summer
Bugles of battle blew,
And bells rang in the towers,
And flags at windows flew.

"He heard the tramp of horses
And the fall of marching feet;
He saw a dust on the hill road,
Regiments in the street,
While men were thick in the highway
And drums in the market beat.

"He watched how the townsfolk hurried
Eagerly to and fro;
He heard the voice of his mother,
Quiet and brave and low;
And he saw his father shoulder
A queer old gun and go.

"Your great-great-great-grandfather,
Sturdy and strong like you,
Glad of the blowing bugles,
Proud of the flags that flew,
Was glad and proud as you, lad--
Son of a soldier, too!"

"Why, I _am_ the son of a soldier!" Amos cried, delighted. "Though I don't
know how you found it out, to be sure."

"Now, Amos," the Journeying Man put in, "it's only fair that you should
give us your poem about a band."

Amos turned red. "My poem about a band!" he echoed. "I don't know any poem
about a band."

"One--two--three," chimed an old grandfather clock on the stairs; and all
at once the little boy, much to his astonishment, began to recite. This is
what he recited:--

"A band is such a brave, bright thing,
With tassels tossed, and burnished brass,
And music quick and fluttering--
I love to see one pass.

"Sometimes it sounds for turning wheels,--
A circus coming into town,--
And then the tune gets in my heels
And shakes them up and down.

"Sometimes it sounds for marching men,
With cry of bugles in the street,
And fair flags blowing free--and then
I cannot hold my feet.

"I follow, follow on and on;
I let it lead me where it will;
And when the last clear notes are gone,
Somehow I hear them still."

The old man was plainly pleased with the verses; he told Amos that little
boys had always felt that way about bands, and probably always would.

"Wait a moment," he said, as the Jo