"Speak, father!" once again he cried,
"If I may yet be gone!"
And but the booming shots replied,
And fast the flames roll'd on.
Upon his brow he felt their breath,
And in his waving hair;
And looked from that lone post of death
In still, yet brave despair.
And shouted but once more aloud,
"My father! must I stay?"
While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud,
The wreathing fires made way.
They wrapt the ship in splendor wild,
They caught the flag on high,
And streamed above the gallant child,
Like banners in the sky.
There came a burst of thunder sound—
The boy—oh! where was he?
Ask of the winds that far around
With fragments strewed the sea!
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
That well had borne their part—
But the noblest thing that perished there
Was that young, faithful heart.
Felicia Hemans.
Monterey
We were not many,—we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if he but could
Have been with us at Monterey.
Now here, now there, the shot it hailed
In deadly drifts of fiery spray,
Yet not a single soldier quailed
When wounded comrades round them wailed
Their dying shout at Monterey.
And on, still on our column kept,
Through walls of flame, its withering way;
Where fell the dead, the living stept,
Still charging on the guns which swept
The slippery streets of Monterey.
The foe himself recoiled aghast,
When, striking where he strongest lay,
We swooped his flanking batteries past,
And braving full their murderous blast,
Stormed home the towers of Monterey.
Our banners on those turrets wave,
And there our evening bugles play;
Where orange boughs above their grave
Keep green the memory of the brave
Who fought and fell at Monterey.
We are not many, we who pressed
Beside the brave who fell that day;
But who of us has not confessed
He'd rather share their warrior rest,
Than not have been at Monterey?
Charles Fenno Hoffman.
The Teacher's "If"
If you can take your dreams into the classroom,
And always make them part of each day's work—
If you can face the countless petty problems
Nor turn from them nor ever try to shirk—
If you can live so that the child you work with
Deep in his heart knows you to be a man—
If you can take "I can't" from out his language
And put in place a vigorous "I can"—
If you can take Love with you to the classroom,
And yet on Firmness never shut the door—
If you can teach a child the love of Nature
So that he helps himself to all her store—
If you can teach him life is what we make it,
That he himself can be his only bar—
If you can tell him something of the heavens,
Or something of the wonder of a star—
If you, with simple bits of truth and honor,
His better self occasionally reach—
And yet not overdo nor have him dub you
As one who is inclined to ever preach—
If you impart to him a bit of liking
For all the wondrous things we find in print—
Yet have him understand that to be happy,