For oh! when the war will be over, We'll go and we'll look for our dead; We'll go when the bee's on the clover, And the plume of the poppy is red; We'll go when the year's at its gayest, When meadows are laughing with flowers; And there where the crosses are grayest, We'll seek for the cross that is ours. For they cry to us: _Friends, we are lonely, A-weary the night and the day; But come in the blossom-time only, Come when our graves will be gay: When daffodils all are a-blowing, And larks are a-thrilling the skies, Oh, come with the hearts of you glowing, And the joy of the Spring in your eyes._ _But never, oh! never come sighing, For ours was the Splendid Release; And oh! but 'twas joy in the dying To know we were winning you Peace. So come when the valleys are sheening, And fledged with the promise of grain; And here where our graves will be greening, Just smile and be happy again._ And so when the war will be over, We'll seek for the Wonderful One; And maiden will look for her lover, And mother will look for her son; And there will be end to our grieving, And gladness will gleam over loss, As--glory beyond all believing!-- We point . . . to a name on a cross. ROBERT W. SERVICE _From "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man"--By permission of William Briggs, Toronto_ EPITAPHS FOR THE SLAIN (_For a British graveyard in France_) When you go home, tell them of us and say: For your to-morrow, these gave their to-day. -------- (_For those who fell in the first Battle of Ypres_) When Might in scornful millions came arrayed, Here a few English stood, and he was stayed. -------- (_For a War Memorial_) These in the glorious morning of their days For England's sake lost all but England's praise. -------- (_For a general grave on Vimy Ridge_) You come from England? Is she England still? Yes, thanks to you who died upon this hill. J. M. EDMONDS _in "The Times"_ EXTRACT FROM FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG'S OFFICIAL REPORT (_January, 1919_) (Too great an emphasis cannot be placed on the following paragraph from Sir Douglas Haig's official report of January, 1919, on the operations along the British front during the last days of the Great War. That the German army was thoroughly beaten when the armistice was declared, is here put beyond doubt by this laconic summary of the military situation, when the order to cease firing was proclaimed.)