Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/35

HOW OLD BROWN TOOK HARPER'S FERRY And he and the two boys left, though the Kansas strife waxed milder,

Grew more sullen, till was over the bloody Border War,

And Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown,

Had gone crazy, as they reckoned by his fearful glare and frown.

So he left the plains of Kansas and their bitter woes behind him,

Slipt off into Virginia, where the statesmen all are born,

Hired a farm by Harper's Ferry, and no one knew where to find him,

Or whether he'd turned parson, or was jacketed and shorn;

For Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown,

Mad as he was, knew texts enough to wear a parson's gown.

He bought no ploughs and harrows, spades and shovels, and such trifles;

But quietly to his rancho there came, by every train,

Boxes full of pikes and pistols, and his well-beloved Sharps rifles;

And eighteen other madmen joined their leader there again.

Says Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown,

"Boys, we've got an army large enough to march and take the town!

"Take the town, and seize the muskets, free the negroes and then arm them;

Carry the County and the State, ay, and all the potent South. 5