A RAINY DAY IN CAMP. And wife, soft-hearted creature, I call myself a brave one, But when the Lord who bought me, To "fight the good fight" faithfully, And yet I know this Captain And I know He'd not forget me, And it's kind of cheerful, thinking 113 114 A RAINY DAY IN CAMP. About that big promotion When He says, "Come up higher." And though it's dismal rainy, For I seem to see Him waiting Surging up the golden streets; And I hear Him read the roll-call, But my fire is dead white ashes, When I've never been enrolled. BY THE BANKS OF THE CUMBERLAND. 115 B BY THE BANKS OF THE CUMBERLAND. BY S. C. MERCER. Y the banks of the Cumberland echoes the roar Of the sentinel's warning, — the foe's on the shore ! Our war-drums are beaten, our bugles are blown, And our legions advance to their musical tone. By the banks of the Cumberland, slippery and red, With the death-dew of battle, and strewn with the dead, Kentucky has routed her insolent foe, And victory's star gilds the night of our woe. By those banks, that once bloomed like an Eden of joy, The demon of treason stalked forth to destroy; Our rich teeming harvests he swept in his wrath, And the blaze of our dwellings illumined his path. Like an eagle-plumed arrow our Nemesis comes, Shout, soldiers! sound, bugles! and clamor, O drums! Let the land ring aloud in the wildness of joy, stroy. 116 THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY. For the God of the Union has prospered the right, THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY. BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. WHAT flower is this that greets the morn, Its hues from heaven so freshly born? With burning star and flaming band It kindles all the sunset land; It is the banner of the free, The starry Flower of Liberty! In savage Nature's far abode Its tender seed our fathers sowed; Then hail the banner of the free, THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY. Behold its streaming rays unite One mingling flood of braided light, Then hail the banner of the free, The blades of heroes fence it round; Then hail the banner of the free, Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom's flower, Then hail the banner of the free, 117 |