Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/107

Rh So strange seems mirth in a camp,

So like a white tent to a shroud.

The May-weed springs; and comes a Man

And mounts our Signal Hill;

A quiet Man, and plain in garb—

Briefly he looks his fill,

Then drops his gray eye on the ground,

Like a loaded mortar he is still:

Meekness and grimness meet in him—

The silent General.

Were men but strong and wise,

Honest as Grant, and calm,

War would be left to the red and black ants,

And the happy world disarm.

That eve a stir was in the camps,

Forerunning quiet soon to come

Among the streets of beechen huts

No more to know the drum.

The weed shall choke the lowly door,

And foxes peer within the gloom,