49.-CUSTER'S LAST CHARGE.

yōre, time long past. shun'ning, avoiding.

quail'ing (kwal), shrinking; giv

ing way.

blěnch, draw back.

elări on, a kind of trumpet.

recked, cared.

'bayed, surrounded.

věngè'ançè, punishment in re
turn for injuries.

hōrdeş, wandering tribes.
as suāg'ing, easing; mitigating.

Dead! Is it possible? He, the bold rider,
Custer, our hero, the first in the fight,
Charming the bullets of yore to fly wider,

Far from our battle-king's ringlets of light!
Dead, our young chieftain, and dead, all forsaken!
No one to tell us the way of his fall!
Slain in the desert, and never to waken,

Never, not even to victory's call!

Proud for his fame that last day that he met them! All the night long he had been on their track, Scorning their traps and the men that had set them,

Wild for a charge that should never give back. There on the hill-top he halted and saw them,— Lodges all loosened and ready to fly;

Hurrying scouts with the tidings to awe them,
Told of his coming before he was nigh.

All the wide valley was full of their forces,
Gathered to cover the lodges' retreat!—
Warriors running in haste to their horses,
Thousands of enemies close to his feet!
Down in the valleys the ages had hollowed,

There lay the Sitting Bull's camp for a prey! Numbers! What recked he? What recked those

who followed

Men who had fought ten to one ere that day?

Out swept the squadrons, the fated three hundred, Into the battle-line steady and full;

Then down the hill-side exultingly thundered,

Into the hordes of the old Sitting Bull!N

Wild Ogalallah,N Arapahoe, Cheyenne,N
N

Wild Horse's braves, and the rest of their

crew,

Shrunk from that charge like a herd from a lion,— Then closed around, the grim horde of wild Sioux!N

Right to their center he charged, and then facing—
Hark to those yells! and around them, O see!
Over the hill-tops the Indians come racing,
Coming as fast as the waves of the sea!

Red was the circle of fire about them:

No hope of victory, no ray of light,

Shot through that terrible black cloud without them,

Brooding in death over Custer's last fight.

Then, did he blench?

Did he die like a craven, Begging those torturing fiends for his life? Was there a soldier who carried the Seven N Flinched like a coward or fled from the strife? No, by the blood of our Custer, no quailing!

There in the midst of the Indians they close, Hemmed in by thousands, but ever assailing, Fighting like tigers, all 'bayed amid foes!

N

Thicker and thicker the bullets came singing;
Down go the horses and riders and all;
Swiftly the warriors round them were ringing,
Circling like buzzards awaiting their fall.

See the wild steeds of the mountain and prairie,
Savage eyes gleaming from forests of mane;
Quivering lances with pennons so airy;
War-painted warriors charging amain.

Backward, again and again, they were driven,
Shrinking to close with the lost little band;
Never a cap that had worn the bright Seven
Bowed till its wearer was dead on the strand.
Closer and closer the death circle growing,

Even the leader's voice, clarion-clear,

Rang out his words of encouragement glowing, "We can but die once, boys,—we'll sell our lives dear!"

N

Dearly they sold them like Berserkers raging,

Facing the death that encircled them round; Death's bitter pangs by their vengeance assuaging, Marking their tracks by their dead on the ground. Comrades, our children shall yet tell their story,— Custer's last charge on the old Sitting Bull; And ages shall swear that the cup of his glory Needed but that death to render it full.

FREDERICK WHITTAKER.

Notes.- Frederick Whittaker is a well-known contributor to periodical literature. He has written a "Life of Custer" which has been highly praised.

General George A. Custer and all his men were killed near the Big Horn River, in Montana Territory, in an attack upon the Sioux (Soo) Indians. The sad event took place June 25, 1876.

O ga lal'lah, A răp'a hoe, Cheỹ ĕnne', are the names of different tribes of Indians, all under the command of Sitting Bull, a notorious Indian warrior at the time of the Custer massacre.

Seven is the number of the regiment, the "Seventh U. S. Cavalry."

'Bayed-embayed, surrounded without chance of escape.

Berserkers were Norse heroes who despised armor, and claimed that furious courage was the best defense in battle.

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