XIII 



NATURE'S MEMORIAL DAY 



How Earth and Sky Observe this National 

 Holiday 



Up to the brow of Cemetery Hill 



The serried battle ranks still press to-day. 



The saxifrages in Confederate gray 



Charge to the robin's bugle, piping shrill. 



In Union blue the sturdy violets still 



Shoulder to shoulder in the battle sway 



And, rank on rank, the rising onslaught stay, 



While cheers of song-birds through the woodland thrill. 



And yet peace reigns, and both the gray and blue 

 Mingled in garlands on the field will lie 

 Marking a soldier's grave, or blue or gray, 

 Shoulder to shoulder waiting, who shall say? 

 We only know they wait beneath the sky 

 While garlands deck them, wet with tears of dew. 



In my town the little " God's Acre " in which 

 the pioneers snuggled to sleep under the protect- 

 ing shadow of their first rough church has 

 grown over hill and dale to a score of acres. The 

 church long since moved out of its own yard, as 

 if to give the pioneers room, yet lingers gently 



