Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-04-08

At Last.


At Last.
Ger the sunlit hills of Berkshire drop
ped the drowsy summer calm,
Filling all the glens and valleys with
the silence like a psalm;
Like an angel chanted anthem thrill
ing towards poets ear,
Till he dreams the mystic rhythm God
alone can know and hear
BY little stream that dubbed from
beneath a towering pine,
Hidden half and overshadowed by the
sprays OF blackberry vine.
Stood man and maiden waiting till
the parting hour should come.
When their clasping hands must sever
at the rattle of the drum.
He to offer life for duty on the swart'
Virginia plain,
She to watch and hope his coming
through the sunshine and the
rain,
Very few the words they uttered as
they waited hand in hand,
But the silence throbbed with voices
that their hearts could under
stand
Tender voices of the past time and the
days forever done.
Days diVinely sweet and holy when
their love had just begun,
Hopeful voices of the future whisper
ing of the joys to be,
When the changing bells of battle hush
ed to the hymns of victory.
Sank the day into the sunset, and there
came the tread of feet
Marching to the sound OF music, up
the length of level street,
Then he drew her to his bosom, part
ing backward from her face,
The long golden hair whose glory made
a halo in the place.
Almost calm above his passion, then he
whispered Il must go
You will send me letters often-kiss
them where you sign them-so!
And if l no more come homeward-~"
trembling grew his lips and
white,
"All these happy days together--you
will not forget them Quite"
Answer none or word or gesture for a
moment did she deign.
Save the mute pathetic promise of her
eyes remonstrant pain,
Then because her love sat higher than
his doubts could lift their fronts,
She drew down his lips and kissed
them as d woman kisses once.
Would to God" she said, my lover,
that my life for thine might be!
But where'er Gods voice shall call thee
in His time I'll follow thee"
That was all. The soldiers tramphng
pa ssed and slowly died away,
And she knelt beside the pine tree all
alone to weep and pray.
Came the solemn twilight gemming sky
and stream with starry spheres,
Came the tender twilight dropping over
all it's dewy tears:
And she sought once more her duties
and the dull routine of life,
Tenfold harder in the bearing than the
battles frenZied strife.
Days of forced and weary marches and
of combat fierce and red,
Nights of bivouac around the campfire
with the stars alone o'erhead,
Months of hopeless, hungry torture in
a Southern prison-pen:&
And a dumb dead face that never love
should wake to life again.
On the frozen hills of Berkshire, white
the SHOWS of winter lie,
Scarlet red against the sunset where
their SUBMITS pierce the sky,
In a little country churchyard, climb
ing up the side of one,
Where the first arbutus blossoms, and
the grass green's first / the sun,
Side by side two graves are showing
over one the flowers have grown,
Ten long years, have blOOmed and
withered, and the autumn leaves
have blown;
On the headstone of the other the first
wreaths have hardly dried,
Where-at lastA-the soldiers sweet
heart slumbers by her lovers
side.
Anon.
lack Chandler Wanted Grant Fired.
Henry Keller, go years old, resi-
dent of Detroit for seventy years, who
once made a uniform for Gen. u. s.
Grant, when he was lieutenant, sta
toned in Detroit, died recently from