Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1874-05-25
Ride of George Cheney--An Incident
of the Flood.
BY JOHN BOYLE o'REILLY,

No song of a soldier riding down
To the raging fight from Winchester town;
No song of a time that shook the earth
With the nations throe at a Nations birth;
But the song of brave man, free from fear
As Sheridan's self or Paul Revere,
Who risked what they risked free from strife
And its promise of glorious pay-his life.
The peaceful valley has walked and stirred
And the answering echoes Of life are heard;
The dew still ciings to the trees and grass
And the early toilers smiling pass
AS they glance aside at the white-walled homes,
Or up the valley, where merrily comes.
The brook that SpaTkles in diamond TillS,
As the sun comes over the Hampshire hills.
What was it, that passed like an ominous breath?
Like shver of fear touch Of death
What was it? The valley is peaceful still,
And the leaves afire on top of the hill
1t was not sound. nor thing of sense
But PAIN like the pang of short suspense
At their feet the gulf of Eternity?
The air of the valley has felt the chill
| The workers pause at the door of the mill;
| The housewife keen TO the shiverng air,
| Arrests her foot the cottage stair,
/ Instructive taught by the mother-love
And thinks of the sleeping ones above!
| Why start the listeners? Why does the course
| OF the mill=stream widen? 1t is a horse,
| Hark TO the sounds of his hoofs, they say,
That gallops so wildly Williamsburg way.
God what was that, like human Shrek
| Prom the winding valley? Will nobody speak,
| VIII noOouy answer those women who cry
| As the awful warnings thunder by?
Whence come they Listen And now they hear
The sound of the galloping households near;
They watch the trend Of the vale, and see
The rider, who thunders SO menaeingy,
With waving arms and warning scream
To the home-flled banks Of the valley stream.
He draws no rein. but he shakes the street
With a shout and the ring of the galloping feet.
And this the cry that he filings 20 the wind
TO the hills for your lires The flood is behind"
He cries and is gone; but they know the worst
The treacherous Williamsburg dam has burstI
The basin that nourished that happy homes
Is changed TO demon-It comes it comes
A monster in aspect, with shaggy front
Of shattered dwellings, to take the brunt
Of the dwellings they Acknowledgement al
hoarse.
The merciess terror fills the course
; OF the narrow valley. and rushing raves,
With Death on the first of its kissing waves
Till cottage and street and crowded mill
Are crumbed and crushed.
But onward STILL
l In front of the roaring food is heard
The gallopng horse and the warning word
Thank God, that the brave man's life is spared,
From Williamsburg town he nobly dared
f To race with the flood and TO take the road
In front of the terrible swath it moved
2 For miles it Numbered and crashed behind
But he looked ahead with a steadfast mind;
They must be acarEedi'' was all he said
!, As away on his terrible ride he sped
: When heroes are called for, bring the crown
, To this Yankee rider: send him down
. On the stream Of time with the Curtius old;
d dis deed as the Romans brave and bold
/ And the tale can as noble a thrill awake
For ne offered his life for the peoples sake
The Boston Ptlot