We are many--we are one--and we're in it overhead, We are coming as an Army that has seen its women dead, And the old Rebel Yell Will be loud above the shell When we cross the top together, seeing red. A RING AXIOM A RING AXIOM. When the pitiless gong rings out again, and they whip your chair away, When you feel you'd like to take the floor, whatever the crowd should say, When the hammering gloves come back again, and the world goes round your head, When you know your arms are only wax, your hands of useless lead, When you feel you'd give your heart and soul for a chance to clinch and rest, And through your brain the whisper comes, "Give in, you've done your best,"-- Why, stiffen your knees and brace your back, and take my word as true-- _If the man in front has got you weak, he's just as tired as you_. He can't attack through a gruelling fight and finish as he began; He's done more work than you to-day--you're just as fine a man. So call your last reserve of pluck--he's careless with his chin-- You'll put it across him every time--Go in--Go in--_Go in_! THE QUARTERMASTER THE QUARTERMASTER. I mustn't look up from the compass-card, nor look at the seas at all, I must watch the helm and compass-card,--If I heard the trumpet-call Of Gabriel sounding Judgment Day to dry the Seas again, I must hold her bow to windward now till I'm relieved again-- To the pipe and wail of a tearing gale, Carrying Starboard Ten. I must stare and frown at the compass-card, that chases round the bowl, North and South and back again with every lurching roll. By the feel of the ship beneath I know the way she's going to swing, But I mustn't look up to the booming wind however the halliards sing-- In a breaking sea with the land a-lee, Carrying Starboard Ten. And I stoop to look at the compass-card as closes in the night, For it's hard to see by the shaded glow of half a candle-light; But the spokes are bright, and I note beside in the corner of my eye A shimmer of light on oilskin wet that shows the Owner nigh-- Foggy and thick and a windy trick, Carrying Starboard Ten. Heave and sway or dive and roll can never disturb me now; Though seas may sweep in rivers of foam across the straining bow, I've got my eyes on the compass-card, and though she broke her keel And hit the bottom beneath us now, you'd find me at the wheel-- In Davy's realm, still at the helm, Carrying Starboard Ten. IN THE BARRED ZONE IN THE BARRED ZONE.