As near they drew and nearer, my heart beat fast in alarm! But still I stood in the doorway, with baby on my arm. They came; they passed; with spur and whip in haste they sped along-- Morgan, Morgan the raider, and his band six hundred strong. Weary they looked and jaded, riding through night and through day; Pushing on east to the river, many long miles away, To the border-strip where Virginia runs up into the West, To ford the Upper Ohio before they could stop to rest. On like the wind they hurried, and Morgan rode in advance; Bright were his eyes like live coals, as he gave me a sideways glance; And I was just breathing freely, after my choking pain, When the last one of the troopers suddenly drew his rein. Frightened I was to death, sir; I scarce dared look in his face, As he asked for a drink of water, and glanced around the place: I gave him a cup, and he smiled--'twas only a boy, you see; Faint and worn; with dim blue eyes, and he'd sailed on the Tennessee. Only sixteen he was, sir--a fond mother's only son-- Off and away with Morgan before his life had begun! The damp drops stood on his temples; drawn was the boyish mouth; And I thought me of the mother waiting down in the South! O, pluck was he to the backbone; and clear grit through and through; Boasted and bragged like a trooper; but the big words wouldn't do; The boy was dying sir, dying, as plain as plain could be, Worn out by his ride with Morgan up from the Tennessee. But, when I told the laddie that I too was from the South, Water came into his dim eyes, and quivers around his mouth; "Do you know the Blue-Grass country?" he wistfully began to say; Then swayed like a willow sapling, and fainted dead away. I had him into the log-house, and worked and brought him to; I fed him, and I coaxed him, as I thought his mother'd do; And, when the lad got better, and the noise in his head was gone, Morgan's men were miles away, galloping, galloping on. "O, I must go," he muttered; "I must be up and away! Morgan, Morgan is waiting for me! O, what will Morgan say?" But I heard the sound of tramping, and kept him back from the door-- The ringing sound of horses' hoofs that I had heard before. And on, on came the soldiers--the Michigan cavalry-- And fast they rode, and back they looked, galloping rapidly; They had followed hard on Morgan's track; they had followed day and night; But of Morgan and Morgan's raiders they had never caught a sight. And rich Ohio sat startled through all these summer days; For strange, wild men were galloping over her broad highways; Now here, now there, now seen, now gone, now north, now east, now west, Through river-valleys and corn-land farms, sweeping away her best.