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THE RIDE OF COLLINS GRAVES.
29

Where right is crushed by force,
And manhood is stricken dead —
There dwelleth the ancient curse,
And the blood on the earth is red!



THE RIDE OF COLLINS GRAVES.


AN INCIDENT OF THE FLOOD IN MASSACHUSETTS, ON MAY 16, 1874.


NO song of a soldier riding down
To the raging fight from Winchester town;
No song of a time that shook the earth
With the nations' throe at a nation's birth;
But the song of a brave man, free from fear
As Sheridan's self or Paul Revere;
Who risked what they risked, free from strife,
And its promise of glorious pay—his life!

The peaceful valley has waked and stirred.
And the answering echoes of life are heard: