Across the field in silent files they sleep, With none to rout their ranks while Death doth keep His watch relentless o'er the nameless heap Of unknown men beneath the numbered stones. More orderly are they than when they marched In broken regiments the sun had parched And powder torn, across the fields, fire-arched. And from their silence now rise up loud tones Which speak to all that breathe, a new command, Whose voice shall ring through all the peaceful land: “Be strong! Keep brave thy heart and clean, thy hand, To right with promptness all the wrongs that rise To hide the God-head's face from brothers' eyes. Rear up in love the Nation's life we bore! Be strong, be strong, till wrong shall be no more!” THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG [JULY 30, 1864] They come, they come, The town with fear is dumb! Their guns have fired from Federal Hill, It seems we hear their voices still Demanding gold in tones more bold Than all the warnings ever told Since Chambersburg these hundred years Has triumphed over frontier fears. They come, they come, With ruin planned for some Whose homes, the seat of hearts' desire, They pitilessly loot and fire Till only desolate ashes mark The sight of hearths forever dark, And only memories live unmarred To haunt the walls the flames have charred. They're here, they're here, They're snatching all that's dear! The glare of flames, the noonday night Of smokes that choke our shrieks of fright; The screams of birds, the horses' neighs, The pets that mourn in countless ways; The splash of silver thrown in wells— All this of hideous plunder tells. They've gone, they've gone, Their ranks are speeding on; Their vandal work accomplished now, They southward flee and care not how Our sick, unhoused, have joined our dead, And well men vainly seek a bed Whereon to lay the frenzied head Of some dear one, by fever fed. They've gone, they've gone, Their years are speeding on. Yet, should they come again to-day We'd greet them in a fervent way: The Chambersburg they left in tears Is born anew these fifty years, And crowned with triumphs toil has won, Stands royal host, with silenced gun. THE WEDDING AT PANAMA Severed forever, Yet closer than ever Two neighboring continents lie. The day when these lands Could reach out and touch hands Forever is gone and passed by. Severed forever, Yet closer than ever, For what a new union is this! They are neighbors made kin Since the wedding has been Of seas that were wed with a kiss. Now both mighty oceans were born of these lands That fed them with streams from their breast, And wedded, will bring to the old parent-sands New wealth from the East and the West.