Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/156

118 He came to ask what he had found,

That was so large, and smooth, and round.

Old Kaspar took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by;

And then the old man shook his head,

And, with a natural sigh,

"'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,

"Who fell in the great victory!

"I find them in the garden,

For there's many hereabout;

And often when I go to plow,

The plowshare turns them out;

For many thousand men," said he,

"Were slain in that great victory!"

"Now tell us what 'twas all about,"

Young Peterkin he cries;

And little Wilhelmine looks up

With wonder-waiting eyes;

"Now tell us all about the war,

And what they killed each other for."

"It was the English," Kaspar cried,

"Who put the French to rout;

But what they killed each other for

I could not well make out.

But everybody said," quoth he,

"That 'twas a famous victory!

"My father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream hard by: