The Picket - Guard

"All qmct long tlio Pto;niio " thev say, "Excopt now md 1 1 1 ♦■ ii a S'.rav pikel Is hol nu lie walks on his boab to and fro l!y a rillemor bid in the thieket. 'Tis imthina - a private or two, now nnd j the, TYill npt count in I.lie news of the battle; Nor n otécet lo-t- only one of the men Moaning out, all alone, the deaih rattla. All quiet along the Potomae to-night Where the soldieru iie pe&cefuUy (lroamTlioir fints !n tlie rty'iöf the clear autumn mon, Or the light -J the walrh firc lenming A tretnülout igh, fta tbs gentle Bigbt wind ïtirovgh the foreatleaves softly is creepine, W'hile Btars upabove, with thcir g'ittering fJ'OS Keep gunrd - for the army is sleeping. There'B only the sound of the lone sentry'B Treail As he t.ramp8 from the rock to the fountain: And thir.ks of the two in the low trtlndlebcd, Far arv in thecot nn tlio.monntnin. His rDOTtet falls slnck- his face, dark and grim, Grows gentle with memories tend?r, As he miutei-s a prayer for the cliildren nslcM'p - For their mother - may Heaven defend her. The moon scems to shino just as Lrightly as tlien, Tliat night when the love yet unspoken Leapcd up to his lips, wlicn love murniured vows Were pleíjjíd to be over unhmlcen. Then drawing his sleevo roughly O7er his evos. He dashos off teara thafc are welling, And gaihers his giin olosor xip to its place, As if to keeo down the heart swelling. Iie pnsges the fountain, the blated pinetree, The folstop is lagging ind wonry; Yet onward h goes, through tho broad belt of hglit, Toward the shd nf ',!e forest eo dreary Hark! was it the niglit-wind that ruailed the leaves, Was it nioonlight po wondrously flashing? It looled like o rifli- ' Ha ! Mary, good bye !" And the life-blood ia ebbing and plaahing. All quiet along the Potomae to night, No sound save the rush of the river; W'hile soft falls the dew on the face of the dead - The pieket"soff dnty forever!