Caxton's Book: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Tales, and Sketches.

  [Decoration]

  VI.

  _THE LOVE KNOT._

  Upon my bosom lies A knot of blue and gray; You ask me why tears fill my eyes As low to you I say:

  "I had two brothers once, Warmhearted, bold and gay; They left my side--one wore the blue, The other wore the gray.

  One rode with "Stonewall" and his men, And joined his fate with Lee; The other followed Sherman's march, Triumphant to the sea.

  Both fought for what they deemed the right, And died with sword in hand; One sleeps amid Virginia's hills, And one in Georgia's land.

  Why should one's dust be consecrate, The other's spurned with scorn-- Both victims of a common fate, Twins cradled, bred and born?

  Oh! tell me not--a patriot one, A traitor vile the other; John was my mother's favorite son, But Eddie was my brother.

  The same sun shines above their graves, My love unchanged must stay-- And so upon my bosom lies Love's knot of blue and gray."