A figure came among us as we slept-- At first he knelt, then slowly rose and wept; Then gathering up a thousand spears, He swept across the fields of Mars, Then bowed farewell, and walked behind the stars, From the land where we were dreaming! * * * * * As wakes the soldier when the alarum calls-- As wakes the mother when her infant falls-- As starts the traveler when around His sleepy couch the fire-bells sound-- So woke our nation with a single bound-- In the land where we were dreaming! DANIEL BEDINGER LUCAS March I hear the bluebird's quaint soliloquy,-- A hesitating note upon the breeze, Blown faintly from the tops of distant trees, As though he were not sure that Spring is nigh, But fed his hopes with bursts of melody. I would I had a spirit-harp to seize The bolder tenor of his rhapsodies When apple-blossoms swing against the sky. On every dark or blust'ring wintry day That airy harp the bluebird's lilt should play; And as I held my sighs and paused to hear, The wand'ring message, with its full-fed cheer And ripe contentment, to my life should bring The essence and fruition of the Spring. DANSKE DANDRIDGE March First In the deep heart of every forest tree The blood is all aglee, And there's a look about the leafless bowers As if they dreamed of flowers. HENRY TIMROD March Second At a garden party in Washington not long ago a Justice of the Supreme Court said in response to some question I put: "It would take the pen of a Zola to describe reconstruction in Louisiana. It is so dark a chapter in our national history. I do not like to think of it. A Zola might base a great novel on that life and death struggle between politicians and races in the land of cotton and sugar plantations, the swamps and bayous of the mighty Mississippi, where the Carpet-Bag Government had a standing army, of blacks, chiefly, and a navy of warships going up and down waterways." MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY _Reconstruction Act put into effect in Louisiana, 1866_ _Texas declares itself independent, 1836_ March Third Women, the most refined, the noblest and best cultured in the land, left their homes, took up their residences adjacent to hospitals and became Florence Nightingales, daughters of the Red Cross, for all who needed care or comfort. It is reproachfully said by alien writers that the Southern women are more "unreconstructed rebels" than the men. It is certainly true that they did as much as the men in winning the battles, and they are now foremost in building monuments and preserving the records of immortal deeds. J. L. M. CURRY _First general convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, at Nashville, 1895_ March Fourth