Baxter, William, (fl. 1865) The Refugee

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THE FAMILY.

THE REFUGEE.
BY REV. WILLIAM BAXTER.

A FRIEND and I were strolling down
The gay and crowded street,
When a pale and sad-eyed one
It was our chance to meet.

My friend had bowed to ladies fair,
Who passed and were forgot;
He bowed to her, and on his cheek
I saw a crimson spot.

And yet it was no flush of shame
Upon his cheek that burned;
His look was soon as sad as hers;
To look at her I turned.

Her years they might have been two score,
Her step was sad and slow;
Not weariness-but just that pace
At which all mourners go.

Though poor, around her yet there was
That nameless grace, which says,
Even to careless passers-by,
"I have seen better days."

"Tell me," said I, "why you, who wear
A soldier's name and sword,
Change color as she passed us by,
Passed us without a word."

His eyes flashed flame. "My blood," he said,
"It near to madness stirs
To meet that sad, that patient one,
And think what wrongs are hers.
"Two years ago-alas! how changed-
A fond, proud wife was she,
And mother, too, of three fair sons-
Three fairer could not be.

Her noble husband, to his flag
And to his country true,
Was foully slain, at midnight, by
A cruel traitor crew;

[2]
Slain, not in open, manly fight;
But on his own hearth-stone
She saw his life-blood ebb away,
And heard his dying groan.

She heard the troopers' curses deep
Re-echo through the hall;
She saw the lurid flames spread fast,
She saw the roof-tree fall.

When morning came, half-crazed she stood
There desolate and lone,
Gazing with tearless eye upon
A mass of whitened bone;

All that was left of him whose love
Had made her life so sweet
Now mingled with the ashes of
Her home now at her feet."

"But where were they, her noble boys,
In this her hour of woe?"
"Ah! they had sought the battle-field
Ere fell this fearful blow.

Two were with Grant when Vicksburg fell."
"The other, where was he?"
"Another flag above him waved
At Richmond under Lee.

And him she mourns as worse than dead,
For in this deadly strife
He battles on the side of those
Who took his father's life.

Bright-eyed, glad-hearted, once she dwelt

In lovely Tennessee;
Slow-paced, sad-eyed, sad-hearted now,
She's here, a Refugee."