"Now, a shroud of snow and silence over everything was spread; And but for this old blue mantle and the old hat on my head, I should not have even doubted, to this moment, I was dead, For my footsteps were as silent as the snow upon the dead! "Death and silence!-Death and silence! all around me as I sped! And behold, a mighty TOWER, as if builded to the dead,— To the Heaven of the heavens, lifted up its mighty head, Till the Stars and Stripes of Heaven all seemed waving from its head! “Round and mighty-based it towered-up into the infiniteAnd I knew no mortal mason could have built a shaft so bright; For it shone like solid sunshine; and a winding stair of light, Wound around it and around it till it wound clear out of sight! "And, behold, as I approached it-with a rapt and dazzled stare, Thinking that I saw old comrades just ascending the great Stair, Suddenly the solemn challenge broke of—'Halt, and who goes there!' 'I 'm a friend,' I said, 'if you are.'-'Then advance, sir, to the Stair!' "I advanced! That sentry, Doctor, was Elijah Ballan tyne! First of all to fall on Monday, after we had formed the line: 'Welcome, my old Sergeant, welcome! Welcome by that countersign!' And he pointed to the scar there, under this old cloak of mine! "As he grasped my hand, I shuddered, thinking only of the grave; But he smiled and pointed upward with a bright and bloodless glaive: 'That's the way, sir, to Head-quarters.'-'What Headquarters?'-' Of the Brave.' 'But the great Tower?'-'That,' he answered, ‘Is the way, sir, of the Brave!' "Then a sudden shame came o'er me at his uniform of light; At my own so old and tattered, and at his so new and bright; 'Ah!' said he, 'you have forgotten the New Uniform tonight, Hurry back, for you must be here at just twelve o'clock to-night!' "And the next thing I remember, you were sitting there, and I Doctor-did you hear a footstep? Hark!-God bless you all! Good-by! Doctor, please to give my musket and my knapsack, when I die, To my Son-my Son that 's coming,—he won't get here till I die! "Tell him his old father blessed him as he never did before,And to carry that old musket"-Hark! a knock is at the door! "Till the Union "-See! it opens!-"Father! Father! speak once more! "Bless you!"--gasped the old gray Sergeant, and he lay and said no more. FORCEYTHE WILLSON. Too Late. "Ah! si la jeunesse savait,-si la vieillesse pouvait!" THERE sat an old man on a rock, And unceasing bewailed him of Fate,— That it could drown the old man's for long, 'When we want, we have for our pains The promise that if we but wait Till the want has burned out of our brains, Every means shall be present to state; While we send for the napkin the soup gets cold, "When strawberries seemed like red heavens,— When my brain was at sixes and sevens, When the goodies all came in a stream! in a stream! "I've a splendid blood horse, and—a liver That it jars into torture to trot; My row-boat 's the gem of the river,— I can buy boundless credits on Paris and Rome, "How I longed, in that lonest of garrets, A rosebush,—a little thatched cottage,— With a woman's chair empty close by, close by! “Ah! now, though I sit on a rock, I have shared one seat with the great; I have sat-knowing naught of the clock- But the lips that kissed, and the arms that caressed, What the End shall be. WHEN another life is added To the heaving, turbid mass; Stains creation's tarnished glass; And a soul from non-existence Springs, that ne'er can die again; Prophesies of future years, It is well we cannot see What the end shall be. When across the infant features Trembles the faint dawn of mind, And the heart looks from the windows With a boundless promise fraught; It is well we cannot see When the boy, upon the threshold That enlocks him ere he roam; Hid behind the sunny sail: It is well we cannot see When the youth beside the maiden Hinteth what her hopes expound, Like enchanted garden-ground; He may falter--so do many; may suffer-so must all: She |