some thing, and a distant dream is death;
There was gossip of birds in the air, and the lowing of herds by the wood,
And a sunset gleam in the sky that the heart of a man holds good;
Then the nun-like Twilight came, violet vestured and still,
And the night's first star outshone afar on the eve of Bunker Hill:

There rang a cry through the camp, with its word upon rousing word;
There was never a faltering foot in the ranks of those that heard.
Lads from the Hampshire hills and the rich Connecticut vales,
Sons of the old Bay Colony, from its shores and its inland dales;
Swiftly they fell in line; no fear could their valor chill;
Ah, brave the show as they ranged a-row on the eve of Bunker Hill.

Then a deep voice lifted a prayer to God of the brave and the true
And the heads of the men were bare in the gathering dusk and dew;
The heads of a thousand men were bowed as the pleading rose,--
Smite Thou, Lord, as of old Thou smotest Thy people's foes!
Oh, nerve Thy Servants' arms to work with a mighty will!
A hush, and then a loud Amen! on the eve of Bunker Hill!

Now they are gone through the night with never a thought of fame,
Gone to the field of a fight that shall win them deathless name;
Some shall never again behold the set of the sun,
But lie like the Concord slain, and the slain of Lexington,
Martyrs to Freedom's cause. Ah, how at their deeds we thrill,
The men whose might made strong the height on the eve of Bunker Hill.

CLINTON SCOLLARD.

THE FLAG OF FORT STANWIX

TRITE but true is the old adage that necessity is the mother of
invention. The first flag that flew over an American fort was
constructed from an "ammunition shirt, a blue jacket captured from the
British, and a woman's red petticoat."

The garrison at Fort Stanwix (Fort Schuyler) had no flag; but it had
possession of the fort despite the siege of twenty days against it by
the British; and it had five British standards taken from the enemy. So
it improvised a flag and, with cheers and yells befitting the occasion,
ran the British standards upside down upon the flag mast and swung the
Stars and Stripes above them. The redcoats looked, and, it is safe to
assert, laughed not, as to them the humor of the situation was not
appealing. But if they were lacking in the sense of humor, these sons of
Old England were not lacking in persistence,