Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/52

48 MARCHING FORTH TO WAR

Permission of the Chicago Examiner, Chicago

It was grand to be a soldier and go swinging down the street

With a crowd of cheering children throwing flowers at your feet,

While the girls along the sidewalk waved to you a fond good-by,

And the prettiest of them, maybe, had a tear drop in her eye.

Bands were playing, flags were waving, when the army marched away,

It was glorious and thrilling, but it's pretty grim to-day.

Down the streets you file at midnight, not a soul to see or hear,

Not a strain of martial music, not a flutter not a cheer.

No one there to breathe a blessing on the cause you go to fight,

Or to wish you all the glory of a battle for the right.

Gloom and silence all around you, gloom and silence on before.

Ah! it sure does take a hero thus to march away to war.