The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-06-19
June II. 1918.
.sicanLulrthcr's story of Bunker Hill Battle,
a, She saw IL ii from the Belfry.

oliver Wendell Holmes poem for the Bunker
EliE centennial, which occurs the nth of June,
ass been published, and is given to the
readers Of the FREE TRADER in advance Oh its
delivery on tie occasion for which it was writ.
ten:
lis like stirring living embgrs when, at eighty
one remembers
NJ the achings and the quakinss of the times
that tried mems souls"
When talk Of 'nt3 aad toyY, when tell the
rebel story,
Jc you the words are ashes, hut to me they're
burning Goals,
. had heard the mdslets' rattle of the April run.
Ming battle;
Aord Percys hunted soldiers, can see tAcr red
coats still;
But deadly chill come, Der me, as the day
looms up before me,
'yhen thousand men lay bleeding on the slopes
of Bunker'S HILL
Twas peaceful summers morning, when the
first thing gave us warning
Vas the booming OF the cannon from the river
and the shore;
aChildn saws grandma, what's the matter, what
Is all this noise ana clattcr,
Gav9these scalping Indian devils come to muir
der us once more:
Poor old soul. my sides were shaking in the
midst OF all my quaking,
so hear the talk of Indians when the guns be
gan to roar;
She had seen the buring village, and the slaugh-
Ter and the pillage,
When the MOhawks killed her father with their
bullets through his door.
TAen said, Now, dear old granny, don't you
fret and worry any,
For I'll soon come back and tell you whether
this is work or play;
There can't be mischief in it, SO won't be gone
minute v
Ecr minute then started, | was gone the
liye-long day.
Nc time for bodice-lacins or for looking. glass
grimacing;
Down my hair went as | hurried, tumbling aalf.
way TO my heels;
Cod forbid your ever knowing when there's
blood around her flowing,
How the lonely, helpless daughter Of a quiet
household feels,
II the street heard taumpisg, and knew il
was the stamping
or the corporal, our old neighbor, on that wood.
en- leg he wore,
With q knot OF women round hint was lucky
had found him.
So followed with the others, and the corporal |
marched before.
Theywcrc making for the stecple,-thc old sol. |
der aud his people;
The pigeons circled round US as we climbed the |
creating stair
Just across the nSrrow riyer-oh, so close it !
made me SILVER,
Stood a fortress on the hilltop that but ycster.
day was bare.
Not SLOW our eyes to Gnd it; well We knew who
stood behind il,
IhougS the earthwork hid them from us and
the stubborn walls were dumb;
Here were sister, wife, and mother looking wild
upon each other,
And their lips were white with terror as they
said, The HoUG Has CoNE
The morning slowly wasted, not a morsel had
we tasted
And oBv heads were almost splitting with the
cmn0ns' deafcning thrill.
= Z hen figure tall and stately round the ram.
part strobe sedately;
bwas Prescott one since told me; he command.
.1t. On the hill.
Every wGgln's heart grew bigger when we saw
his raaly figure,
With the ,banyan hucklcd round It, standing up
so straight and tall.
Like gent eEan Of lc.aucr who Is strollng out
for pleasure,
Throug the storm Of shells ana cannon shot he
walked around the wall
At eleven the stree is were swarmng, for the red.
coats ranks were forming;
At noon in marching 0rser they were moving to
the piers;
How the bayoucts cleaned and glistcned, as we
looked far down and listened
To the trdmping and the drum beat Of the bcted
grcnadicrs.
At length the men have stlrted, with u cheer Git L
scared aint-hcartcdJ,
.-1ihei' scarlet regimcntals, with their knap
sacks on their backs.
And the reddening, ripping water as after a sea
fights slaughter,
Round the bargcs gliding onward blushod liked
blood along their tracks,
So they crossed 10 the other border, and again
they formed in order;
And the boats came back for soldiers came for
soldiers, soldiers still;
, The time seemed everlasting to us women faint
and fasting
AT last they're moving, marching, marching
proudly up the hill
We can see the bright steel glancng all along
the lines advancing
Now the front rank fires a vOilcy-thcy have |
thrown away their shot;
For behind their carthworl: lying, all the balls
above them flying
tOur people need not hurry; SO they wait and an
swer not
Then the corporal, our old cripple Che would
swear sometimes and tipplol-
lie had heard the bullets whistle in the old
French war; before
Calls out in words OF jce;irg, just as if they all
were hearing
And hiswooden leg thumps fogcly on the dusty
belfry door;
"Oh! fire away yc Williams anG ear King Georges
shillm's,
But yen waste ton Of powder before rebel
falls:
You may bang the dirt and welcome, they're Us
safe as Dau1 Malcolm
Ten foot beneath the gravestone that you've
sp.iuteryd with you're balls"
in the hush OF expectation, in the awe and trepi-
dation
OF the dread approaching moment, we are well
nigh bTcathlCso all;
Though the rotten bars are falling on the rikcty
belfry railing,
We are crowding up ogainst them like the waves
against wall,
Just glimpse ithe air Is clearer they are near
eT,-nearer, -ncarer,
When fash-a curling smokc.wreath-thcn a
crash--the stocplc snakes