But the drum

Echoed, "Come!

Death shall reap the braver harvest," said the solemn

sounding drum.

"But when won the coming battle,

What of profit springs therefrom?

What if conquest, subjugation,

Even greater ills become?"

But the drum

Answered, "Come!

You must do the sum to prove it," said the Yankee

answering drum.

"What if, 'mid the cannons' thunder,

Whistling shot and bursting bomb,

When my brothers fall around me,

Should my heart grow cold and numb?"

But the drum

Answered, "Come!

Better there in death united, than in life a recre

ant, come ! "

Thus they answered, - hoping, fearing,

Some in faith, and doubting some,

Till a trumpet-voice proclaiming,

Said, "My chosen people, come!"

Then the drum,

Lo! was dumb,

For the great heart of the nation, throbbing, an

swered, "Lord, we come!"

The harvest moon looks calmly down

Upon our peaceful fields.

The long grass dimples on the hill,

The pines sing by the sea;

And Plenty, from her golden horn,

Is pouring far and free.

O brothers by the farther sea!

Think still our faith is warm:

The same bright flag above us waves

That swathed our baby form.

The same red blood that dyes your fields Here throbs in patriot pride;

The blood that flowed when Lander fell,

And Baker's crimson tide.

And thus apart our hearts keep time

With every pulse ye feel;

And Mercy's ringing gold shall chime

With Valor's clashing steel.

RELIEVING GUARD.

T. 8. K. OBIIT MARCH 4, 1864.

AME the relief. "What, sentry, ho!

CAME

How passed the night through thy long waking?"

"Cold, cheerless, dark, as may befit

The hour before the dawn is breaking."

"No sight? no sound?" "No; nothing save

The plover from the marshes calling,

And in yon Western sky, about

An hour ago, a Star was falling."

"A star? There's nothing strange in that."

"No, nothing; but, above the thicket,

Somehow it seemed to me that God

Somewhere had just relieved a picket.”