Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/198

194 Each day that passed I hungered more to hear about that fight, And oftentimes I prayed in vain. At length, one winter's night,— The very night I speak of now,—with more than usual care I filled his pipe, then took my stand beside my uncle's chair; I fixed my eyes upon the Cross,—he saw my youthful plan; And, smiling, laid the pipe aside and thus the tale began:—

"Well, boy, it was in summer time, and just at morning's light We heard the 'Boot and Saddle!' sound: the foe was then in sight, Just winding round a distant hill and opening on the plain. Each trooper looked with careful eye to girth and curb and rein.