Grandpa Nathan

Grandpa Nathan
3776

By the beech and hickory Dre
Grandpa Nathan sat at night
With details of marching armes,
And the news of many a fight

When he laid aside the paper
Though its contests he had told
He was plied with any questions
By the young and by the old

‘Tis a war the most infernal
Grandpa Nathan made reply
But the legions of the Union
Scon will crush it out or die

If I only had the vigoг
Of just twenty years ago,
How I’d leap into my saddle
How I’d fly to meet the foe!

Nannie Hardin, dearest daughter
There’s a spirit now abroad
That’s akin to whatsoever
Is at enmity with God

It has wrought upon a portion
Of the people of this land
‘Till they almost think they’re honest
In the treason they have planned

It has struck the sea with rapine
It has tinged its shores with blood
And it rolls and surges Inland
Like a desolating flood

It has rent the nearest kindred
Even the mother and the son;
But as God’s a God of justice
Its career will soon be run

There’s a camp at Wyckliffe’s meadow
Less than eighteen miles away
John, at your age I could make it twice
Twixt now and break of day

Fill the buggy up with baskets,
Fill each basket to the brim
Strip the pantry of its cholcest
Till the shelves are lean and sitm

Take a jug or two of apple
For those chill November dampS
Oft benumb the weary sentries
As they guard the sleeping camps

Drive the gait of old Sarpedon
For the glory of his stres
And you’ll reach the camp at Wyckliffe’s
Ere they build the morning fires

Tell the so dier of Kentucky
And the soldier from abroad
Who have come to fight the battles
Of their country and of God

Tell them one who on the Wabash
Fought with Davis when he fell
Who fought at Meigs where Dudley met
The painted hosts of hell

One who fought with Hurt at Raisin
And with Johnson on the Thames
And nd with Jackson at New Orleans,
Where we won inimmortal names

Sends them from his chimney corner
Such fair greeting as he may
With a few small creature comforts
For this drear November day

Tell them he has watched this quarrel
From its outbreak until now
And with hand upon his hear! beat
And God’s light upon his brow

He invokes their truest manhood
The e full full prowess of their youth
In this battle of the nation
For the right and for the truth

Tell them one whose years are sinking
To the quiet of the grave
Thus enjoins each gallant spirit
Who would scorn to be a slave

By the toll and blood their fathers
In the cause of freedom spent,
By the memory of their mothers,
And the noble and they lent

By the blessings God has showered
On this birthright of the free,
Give to braven a reverent spirit
Bend to heaven a wiiling knee

And in silence ‘mid the pauses
Of the hyran and of the prayer,