The Old Canteen

Air- "Uié (Hd noodfín itock-rr." Send ii up to thc garret? WtU, do; wh;t II it hang llke a hone-al3 to serve a a charm Hadlts d;ty to hv. ture, matches 1 1 1 with tliligs he re; sli;ill 1 "sck"the oíd friend jirat because t i. quecr ? Tilingo! beauty 'tis not, bnt n )oy none tii As my hot líps remember its old-tuno caj-ess. And 1 think on the sniacr once gurgüng betwcen My lips i'rom that battered oíd tín canteen. It has hnng by my iida in the long, wcary tramp, Keen my triend in the bïvnuac, barrack and c.imp, Id Uh iriunipíi. captura, advance and retrcat, More llian liirht Xa iny path, mon than guidt to my wet. Swccter nectíii1 ncer tlowed, howcVr ;ind cold, From nut chalicc of si'ver or goblct oí erold, For a kíng or an emperor. princis or queen, Tban to me from the mouth oí' that oíd carneen. It has checred the despondent on many a night. 'Till thcir laughiag eyes g.eanied in the carap firc Uffht, Whctlier guns stood in silence or bootned :it short It was always on duty, though twould not br strange. If in somnolent permds just after 't4p" Some colonel or ciptain disturbod :it his n:tp-. May h;ive feH a Mispicion that spirits" unst-en liad somehow b.dtviled that oíd canteen. But I think di" tlicc whiti iu lulls oí' the strifc It has clled the f:ir look in dim eres tck to lif ; Help to st.iunch thc quick blood just beginning to pour, SulUncd broad, gaptng wounds that wcrc stiffencd and sore Moistened tiiin livid lips, so despairlag of breath They could only tpeak thanks iu the quiver nf death ; Ifao ang-I of mtrrcy c'cr hovir betwten Tlus world und thc mxt, 'twas the oíd cantevn Thrn banish it not as a profitlcss thlng, cru it hun; in a palace it well tnight swing, To tell iu ltl mute, allegorical way How the citir.en voluntecr won the day. How he bravely. unrlinchingly, grandly won ; And how, when th ¦ drath-dealinL wor-í was done, 1 Twas as easy 1 is passion i rom war to we:in As his lips from thv mouth of thut oíd cante n . By-and-by, wlien A hatc for the rag with the bars Is forOttm in love for the 'stripes and the t:iri," Wiicn Columbia rules everything, solid and snle, From her own ship canal tu the ice at the pole; When thc Grand Anny men have obeyed the last calí, And the May flowers and violets bloom for us all ; Then away in some garret the cobwebs mty creen My batttred, old, cloth-covered, tin canteen.