AFTER THE BATTLE OF ANTIETA^I

<( No, Tom, the bleecling is alinost doue ;

I shall live this many and maiiy a day : And I felt ail round to find my gun As I heard die fîring just as the sun Went down ; the rebels I think hâve run,

The noise was so far away.

" I shall live to fight as never before —

In the battle's front I shall bear my part ;

And when it is over, on the floor

I shall play with my boy ; and by the door

My wife shall sit, with the fear no more Of war in her gentle heart. »

« Oh, Ben ! the days of battle appear

A great way off ; l'il forget them soon.

I hâve been thinking while lying hère

It was just a year ago — a year —

That I went a-nutting with Nellie dear. In the sunny afternoon.

• '( The hills were as bright as hills could be. And Nellie, she wore a dress like down,

And under the green old chestnut-tree, Pclted by dropping nuts, sat she Looking up with half-scarcd cyes at me As I shook out the chestnuts brown.

« I came down safe, and she kissed me then With a face as glad as the happy sun,

And she gave me a handful of brown nuts, Ben ;

They lay so soft in her hand that when

I took them they sHd and got back again Somehow, so I kept but one.

« I hâve that nut in my knapsack still :

I shall go for more with NelHe soon :

They are ripe by this time up on the hill.

To-morrow, perhaps, I shall go — I am ill

And its cloudy to-night — but to-morrow will Be fair in the afternoon.

" I am going a-nutting with Nellie, and you

Will sit with ynur wifc and boy at home ; The day is bright as ever I knew,