d around the festal board,
Fighting old battles over where the field
Ran red with wine, and all the battle-blare
Was merry laughter and the merry songs--
Told when the songs were sung by him who heard
The pith of it from the dying soldier's lips--
His Captain--tell it as the Captain told.

THE CAPTAIN'S STORY

"Well, comrades, let us fight one battle more;
Let the cock crow--we'll guard the camp till morn.
And--since the singers and the merry ones
Are _hors de combat_--fill the cups again;
Nod if you must, but listen to a tale
Romantic--but the warp thereof is truth.
When the old Flag on Sumter's sea-girt walls
From its proud perch a fluttering ruin fell,
I swore an oath as big as Bunker Hill;
For I was younger then, nor battle-scarred,
And full of patriot-faith and patriot-fire.

"I raised a company of riflemen,
Marched to the front, and proud of my command,
Nor seeking higher, led them till the day
Of triumph and the nation's jubilee.
Among the first that answered to my call
The hero came whose story you shall hear.
'Tis better I describe him: He was young--
Near two and twenty--neither short nor tall--
A slender student, and his tapering hands
Had better graced a maiden than a man:
Sad, thoughtful face--a wealth of raven hair
Brushed back in waves from forehead prominent;
A classic nose--half Roman and half Greek;
Dark, lustrous eyes beneath dark, jutting brows,
Wearing a shade of sorrow, yet so keen,
And in the storm of battle flashing fire.

"'Well, boy,' I said, 'I doubt if you will do;
I need stout men for picket-line and march--
Men that have bone and muscle--men inured
To toil and hardships--men, in short, my boy,
To march and fight and march and fight again.'
A queer expression lit his earnest face--
Half frown--half smile.

"'Well _try_ me.' That was all
He answered, and I put him on the roll--
_Paul Douglas, private_--and he donned the blue.
Paul proved himself the best in my command;
I found him first at _reveille_, and first
In all the varied duties of the day.
His rough-hewn comrades, bred to boisterous ways,
Jeered at the slender youth with maiden hands,
Nicknamed him 'Nel,' and for a month or more
Kept up a fusillade of jokes and jeers.
Their jokes and jeers he heard but heeded not,
Or heeding did a kindly act for him
That jeered him loudest; so the hardy men
Came to look up to Paul as one above
The level of their rough and roistering ways.
He never joined t