FORCEYTHE WILLSON. THE OLD SERGEANT. "COME a little nearer, doctor, - thank you, let me take the cup; "Feel my pulse, sir, if you want to, but it ain't much use to try "What you say will make no difference, doctor, when you come to die. "Doctor, what has been the matter?" "You were very faint, they say; You must try to get to sleep now." "Doctor, have I been away ?" "Not that anybody knows of!" "Doctor, Doctor, please to stay! There is something I must tell you, and you won't have long to stay! "I have got my marching orders, and I'm ready now to go; Doctor, did you say I fainted ? but it couldn't ha' been so, For as sure as I'm a sergeant, and was wounded at Shiloh, I've this very night been back there, on the old field of Shiloh! "This is all that I remember: The last time the lighter came, And the lights had all been lowered, and the noises much the same, He had not been gone five minutes before something called my name: 'Orderly Sergeant - Robert Burton!' — just that way it called my name. "And I wondered who could call me so distinctly and so slow, "Then I thought: It's all a nightmare, all a humbug and a bore: "That is all that I remember, till a sudden burst of light, When the river was perdition and all hell was opposite! "And the same old palpitation came again in all its power, "Doctor Austin! what day is this?" "It is Wednesday night, you know." "Yes, to-morrow will be New Year's, and a right good time below! What time is it, Doctor Austin ?" 66 Nearly twelve."" Then don't you go! Can it be that all this happened - all this- not an hour ago? "There was where the gunboats opened on the dark rebellious host; "And the old field lay before me all deserted far and wide; "Death and silence! - Death and silence! all around me as I sped! To the heaven of the heavens lifted up its mighty head, Till the Stars and Stripes of heaven all seemed waving from its head! "Round and mighty-based it towered,-up into the infinite, And I knew no mortal mason could have built a shaft so bright; For it shone like solid sunshine; and a winding-stair of light Wound around it and around it till it wound clear out of sight! "And, behold, as I approached it, with a rapt and dazzled stare, Thinking that I saw old comrades just ascending the great stair, Suddenly the solemn challenge broke, of - Halt, and who goes there!' 'I'm a friend,' I said, 'if you are.' 'Then advance, sir, to the stair!' "I advanced! That sentry, doctor, was Elijah Ballantyne!· First of all to fall on Monday, after we had formed the line!'Welcome, my old sergeant, welcome! Welcome by that countersign!' And he pointed to the scar there, under this old cloak of mine! "As he grasped my hand, I shuddered, thinking only of the grave; But he smiled and pointed upward with a bright and bloodless glaive; That's the way, sir, to headquarters.' What headquarters? Of the brave.' But the great tower?' That,' he answered, is the way, sir, of the brave!' "Then a sudden shame came o'er me, at his uniform of light; "And the next thing I remember, you were sitting there, and IDoctor, did you hear a footstep? Hark! - God bless you all! Good-by! Doctor, please to give my musket and my knapsack, when I die, To my son - - my son that's coming, he won't get here till I die ! "Tell him his old father blessed him as he never did before, — And to carry that old musket ". Hark! a knock is at the door! 66 - "Till the Union"-See! it opens!-"Father! Father! speak once more!" 'Bless you!" gasped the old, gray sergeant, and he lay and said no more! roll And like a god who brings the day, seas, From the parting cloud fresh blows the breeze; And that is the spirit whose well known song Makes the vessel to sail in joy along. O'er wrathful surge, through blackNo fears hath she; her giant form ening storm, Majestically calm would go 'Mid the deep darkness white as snow! But gently now the small waves glide Like playful lambs o'er a mountain's side. So stately her bearing, so proud her array, The main she will traverse for ever and aye. Right onwards to the golden gates of Many ports will exult at the gleam heaven, Where to the eye of faith it peaceful lies, And tells to man his glorious destinies. [From the Isle of Palms.] THE SHIPWRECK. BUT list! a low and moaning sound The moon is sunk; and a clouded of her mast; Hush! hush! thou vain dreamer! this hour is her last. Five hundred souls in one instant of dread Are hurried o'er the deck; And fast the miserable ship Becomes a lifeless wreck. Her keel hath struck on a hidden rock, Her planks are torn asunder, And down come her masts with a reeling shock, And a hideous crash like thunder. Her sails are draggled in the brine, That gladdened late the skies, And her pennant, that kissed the fair moonshine, Down many a fathom lies. |