he track?

Ask the dear ones gathered nightly round the shining household hearth,
What to them is brighter, better than the choicest things of earth?
Ask that dearer one, whose loving, like a ceaseless vestal flame,
Sets my very soul a-glowing at the mention of her name;
Ask her why the loved, in dying, feels her spirit linked with his
In a union death but strengthens? she will tell you what it is.

And there's something, Uncle Jared, you may tell her, if you will,
That the precious flag she gave me I have kept unsullied still;
And--this touch of pride forgive me--where Death sought our gallant host,
Where our stricken lines were weakest, there it ever waved the most;
Bear it back, and tell her, fondly, brighter, purer, steadier far,
'Mid the crimson strife of battle, shone my life's unsetting star!

But, forbear, dear Uncle Jared, when there's something more to tell,
And her lips, with rapid blanching, bid you answer how I fell;
Teach your tongue the trick of slighting, though 'tis faithful to the rest,
Lest it say her brother's bullet is the bullet in my breast.
But, if it must be that she learn it, despite your tender care,
'T will soothe her bleeding heart to know my bayonet pricked the air.

Life is ebbing, Uncle Jared; my enlistment endeth here;
Death, the conqueror, has drafted--I can no more volunteer.
But I hear the roll-call yonder, and I go with willing feet
Through the shadows to the valley where victorious armies meet.
Raise the ensign, _Uncle Jared_--let its dear folds o'er me _fall_;
Strength and Union for my country, and _God's_ banner over _all_.

CHAPTER X.

Sports in Camp -- Anecdote of the 63d Ohio and Colonel
Sprague -- Soldier's Dream of Home -- The Wife's Reply.

Army of the Cumberland,
Camp near Triune, Tenn., _May 12, 1863_.

There are, at all times, sunny sides as well as the dark and
melancholy picture, in camp life. Men whose business is that of
slaughter--men trained to slay and kill, will, amid the greatest
destruction of life, become oblivious to all surrounding scenes of
death and carnage.

I have seen men seated amid hundreds of slain, quietly enjoying a game
of "seven-up," or having _a little draw_. Yet let them once return to
their homes, and enjoy the society and influence of the gentler sex,
and they will soon forget the excitement and vices of camp,