Ballads of Bravery. Various

her husband’s sword,

      ’Mid little ones who weep or wonder,

      And bravely speaks the cheering word,

      What though her heart be rent asunder,

      Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear

      The bolts of death around him rattle,

      Hath shed as sacred blood as e’er

      Was poured upon a field of battle!

      The mother who conceals her grief,

      While to her breast her son she presses,

      Then breathes a few brave words and brief,

      Kissing the patriot brow she blesses,

      With no one but her secret God

      To know the pain that weighs upon her,

      Sheds holy blood as e’er the sod

      Received on Freedom’s field of honor!

      Kane: died February 16, 1857

      ALOFT upon an old basaltic crag,

      Which, scalped by keen winds that defend the Pole,

      Gazes with dead face on the seas that roll

      Around the secret of the mystic zone,

      A mighty nation’s star-bespangled flag

      Flutters alone;

      And underneath, upon the lifeless front

      Of that drear cliff, a simple name is traced, —

      Fit type of him who, famishing and gaunt,

      But with a rocky purpose in his soul,

      Breasted the gathering snows,