The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-06-03
SOLDlES~Si BUDGET.
The Charmed Life...A True Ballad OF
the War,

r'a The lines Of Hateful war were set
In battles grim array,
And ceaseless fell the shot and shell
Through all the CHASTITY day.
on either side the army stretched
Along the meadow green,
And broad and white from left TO right
The roadway wound between
The air was blind with throbbng heat,
And as the sun rose higher
The summer blue Of heaven shone through
haze of tropic FIRE;
The curylng road was dashed with gore,
And every upturned cod
Was stained with blood whose living food
Soaked all the grassy sod
The shrieks and groans of dying men
Rang through the tumults roar,
Till one whose ear forced to hear
Their cries could bear no more,
lie rushed to where the general stood,
crave your leave to bring,
For men who die in agony,
Water from yonder spring;
"They moan and shrek with maddening thirst
They writhe in their despair,
While might take the dIaught to slake
The torture that they bear
may, Sergeant Kirkland, you will get
bullet through your head;
And, foolish lad, you will but add
Another to the dead"
Not sol pray you let me go,
without n word of chafe,
For God. whose care is everywhere,
think will keep me safe"
"why will you ask my leave go
Where not living man
Could meet the strife secure Of life2
But lie may keep who can"
He sprang with fiery haste away,
But in a moment more
The stalwart form, all flushed and warm,
Was back within the door
He flung handkerchief abroad;
" Have your leave to wave
This signal white amid the fight
As sign come to saver"
"No. mol" the general shook his head,
Betwixt a sigh and groan;
"You choose to go, brave fellowl so
The risk must be your ownl"
The laundering guns still rent the air,
The battle ragged as hot,
And all around the sodden ground
Was plowed with kissing shot;
Yet straight between the belching lines,
Leaping the roadside wall,
Right through the clang the sergeant sprang,
And dared to face 1t all.
In either steadfast hand he held
A trimming water can,
Which through the crash of cannon flash
He bore from man to man.
With blessed draughts the fainting soul
He reused to life again,
And parching lips we're soothed with sips
That dulled the ST. ess of pain.
He rail- ed the dying to his knee
From off he weltering sod,
And with word none other heard
Dismissed his soul to God
1t mattered not, as on he moved
Where dead and wounded lay,
If, tried and true, they wore the blue.
Or, true and tried, the gray!
And, as to many gasping mouth
He held the full canteen,
His hurrying form amid the storm
OF raking shot was seen.
gradual lul hushed down the roar,
A pause fell on the strife,
As though 1t were foul wrong to dare
To touch SO charmed a life;
And slow and slower doomed the guns
Along each watching line,
AS to and fro they saw him go
on errand so divine.
And when the sultry hours were passed,
And mid the wounded none
Had missed unquaffed the healing draught,
And KirklaLd's work was done
Ashout that rent the very heavens
From either army rang,
As DER the wall, alert and tall,
The sergeant lightly sprang.
And not man among the ranks,
Who saw the oC DIS he braved,
In blue or gray, but seemed to say,
Thank God that he is saved!"
Margaret j. Preston, in Southern Biyouac