Page:The Sad Years.djvu/113

AN OLD PROVERB (Continued) Sleeping in vale and hill, Sobbing of men is mute, And scream of dying brute, On the red fields of war, In those good years afar. Only the waving grass, Where the shy children pass Seeking the hidden flower, Glad in their golden hour, And as they laughing roam Mothers will call them home, Laden with fruit or flower Run they at twilight hour.

Over the meadow grass Slow the moon's shadows pass. Only the chirp of bird From the deep hedge is heard. This in a thousand years Payment of blood and tears, Horrors we dare not name, It will be all the same. What is the value then To all those sleeping men? [105]