e folks at home, their
reverence, their loyalty, was summed up in that flag. I stood to sing,
my eyes brimming with tears. The great congregation started that
beautifully sweet hymn that is being sung all over America in the
churches in loving memory of the boys over there:
"God save our splendid men,
Send them safe home again,
God save our men.
Make them victorious,
Patient and chivalrous,
They are so dear to us,
God save our men.
God keep our own dear men,
From every stain of sin,
God keep our men.
When Satan would allure,
When tempted, keep them pure,
Be their protection sure--
God keep our men.
God hold our precious men,
And love them to the end.
God hold our men.
Held in Thine arms so strong
To Thee they all belong.
This ever be our song:
God hold our men."
I stood the pressure until that great congregation came to that line
"They are so dear to us," and the voice of the mother beside me broke,
and she had to stop. Then I had to stop, too, and we looked at each
other through our tears and smiled and understood, so that when she
sweetly said, "I have a boy over there," her words were superfluous.
And so I have added another memory of song to the hours that will never
die.
II
SHIP SILHOUETTES
It was nearing the dawn, and flaming heralds gave promise of a
brilliant day coming up out of France to the east. Three of us stood
in the "crow's-nest" on an American transport, where we had been
standing our "watch" since four o'clock that morning.
Suddenly as we peered through our glasses off to the west we saw the
masts of a great cruiser creeping above the horizon of the sea. We
reported it to the "bridge," where it was confirmed. Then in a few
minutes we saw another mast, and then another, and another; four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twenty--five, six--twenty-six ships
coming up over the western horizon, bound for France, bearing the most
precious burden that ever a caravan of the sea carried across the
waters of the deep; American boys! Your boys!
It was a marvellous sight. We had been so intently watching this that
we had forgotten about the dawn. Then we turned for a minute, and off
to the east a brilliant red dawn was splashing its way out of the sea.
"What are those dots on the sun?" Doctor Freeman shouted to me.
[Illustration: "What are those dots on the sun?" Doctor Freeman shouted
to me.]
"Why, I b
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