The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-05-09

ENFIELD. Conn.,, APRIL. It's.
IN Pilgrim land, one Sabbath-day,
~, lhe winter lay like sheep about
The ragged pastures mullein gray;
The April sun shone in and out,
The showers swept by in fitful flOcks,
And caves licked fast like mantel clocks;
And now and then wealthy cloud
Would wear ribbon broad and bright,
And now and then winged crowd
Ut shivering azure flash in sight.
So rainbows bend and bluebirds fly
And violets show their bits of sky.
TO Enfield Church throng all the town.
In quilted hood and bombazinc,
In beaver hat with tlaring crown,
And quaint vandy Ike and victOriue;
And buttOned boys in roundabout
From calyx collars blossom out:
Bandauas wave their feeble fire,
And foot-stoves tlnkle up the aisle;
A gray -haired elder leads the choir.
And girls in linsey-woolsey smile.
So buck to life the beings glide
Whose very graves have ebbed and died.
One hundred years have waned, and vet
We call the roll. and not in vain,
For one whose hint-lock musket set
The echoes wild round Fort Duquesne,
And smelled the battle powder smoke
Ere Revolution thunders woke.
Lo. Thomas Able answers, Here.'
Within the dull. long-meter place.
That day. upon the parson q ear,
And tlampling down his words Of grace,
\ horsemans gallop rudely beat
Along the splashed and empty street.
The rider drew his dripping rein.
rt Ana then !. a letter. wasp-nest gray.
And red-coats had a fight to-day!
To Captain. Able this with speed"
Twelve little words to tell the deed.
The Captain read. struck ont for homo
The old qulckstep of battle born,
Slung on once more a battered drum.
That bore painted unicorn,
Then right-about. as whirls Il torch,
He stood before the sacred porch.
And then a murmuring of bees
Bro ke Ill upon the house of PRAYER;
And then a wind-song swept the trees,
And then a snarl from wolfish lair;
And then charge of grenadiers.
And then flight of drum-beat cheers.
SO drum and doctrine rudely blent,
The easements ratified strange accord;
No mortal knew what either meant:
Twas doubie-drag and Holy Word.
linus saith tue drum. and thus the Lord
The Captain raised SO wild a rOut
He drummed the congregation out.
The people gathered round amazed;
The soldier barred his head and spoke,
And every sentence burned and blazed.
As trenchant As a s;aber stroke;
8 time to pick the flint to-day,
To sling the knapsack, and away!
The green of Lexington is red
With British rcd-coats. brothers blood!
In rightful cause the earliest dead
Are always best beloved of God.
Mark time. Now let the march begin!
All bound for Boston fall right i'm
Then rub-a-dub the drum Jared on,
The throbbing roll of battle beat;
Fail In, NV men. and one by one
They rhymed the tune with heart and feet
And 50 they made a Sabbath march
10 glory meath the elm tree arch.
The Continental line unwound
Along the church-yard's breathless sod.
sAnd hotter grew the hallowed ground
-. Where Virtue slept and Nalor trod.
Two hundred strong that April day
They rallied out and marched away.
Brigaded there at Bunker Hill,
Their names are writ on Glory's page.
The brave old Captains Sunday drill
Has drummed its way across the age.
Benjamin +. Taylor. in atlantic for Nay.