56 TAKING A MESSAGE THROUGH. "Where are those cans we put aboard? Brave John, that's just the thing; no one but you Would thought of the like to grease the track, That we might take a message through!" The cans were brought and the rails were oiled; Their pursuers rushed onto the glistning track, But instead of the prize they expected to get The wheels rolled round and the car went back. Their car rolled on till a shot was fired, And then they saw our boys in blue, They're safe beneath the stars and stripes, They'd lived to take the message through! Lincoln's Gall for Groops. HERE are the thousands-seventy-five- Again he said in sixty-one, "Our blood bought land our fathers' won As sons we must defend; Some forty thousand stalwart ones Must lend a helping hand.” Oh! where are they? Again he said, with a troubled mind, "The foe is on our track! hree hundred thousand more I'll call, To beat the oppressors back." Oh! where are they? gain he said, in sixty-two, nd yet he saw 'twas their intent Our nation to destroy; and as he took his pen ree hundred thousand more to call He said, "my country, can it be at these brave boys must fall?" Oh! where are they? four months more, with a weary frame, And a heart that felt for all, e said, "five hundred thousand more must come; Will they answer to my call?" Oh! where are they? Again he said, "we will be crushed Without two hundred thousand more!" And then they rallied from the hills of Maine, And from the bleeding Kansas shore. Oh! where are they? Stout hearts recoiled from the bloody strife, Oh! where are they? With throbbing heart and anxious brow, Again our leader said: "The foe that's drenched our land with blood, They cannot hold out long;— So come and help the weary ones- And so they went-two million men- |