````V. C

|A CYNICAL story? That's

`````not my view.

````The years since he fell are

`````twain.

````What were his chances of coming

`````through?

````Which of his friends remain?

````But Ermyntrude's training a

`````splendid boy

````Twenty years younger than En-

`````sign Joy.

````On balance, a British gain!

|AND Ermyntrude, did she

`````lose her all

````Or find it, two years ago?

````O young girl-wives of the boys

`````who fall,

````With your youth and your

`````babes to show!

````No heart but bleeds for your

`````widowhood.

````Yet Life is with you, and Life is

`````good.

````No bone of your bone lies low!

|YOUR blessedness came--as

`````it went--in a day.

````Deep dread but heightened

`````your mirth.

````Your idols' feet never turned to

`````clay--

````Never lit upon common earth.

````Love is the Game but is not the

````Goal:

````You played it together, body and

`````soul,

````And you had your Candle's

`````worth.

|YES! though the Candle light

`````a Shrine,

````And heart cannot count the

`````cost,

````You are Winners yet in its tender

`````shine!

````Would they choose to have

`````lived and lost?

````There are chills, you see, for the

`````finest hearts;

````But, once it is only old Death

`````that parts,

````There can never come twinge

`````of frost.

|AND this be our comfort for

````Every Boy

````Cut down in his high heyday,

````Or ever the Sweets of the Morn-

`````ing cloy,

````Or the Green Leaf wither

`````away;

````So a sunlit billow curls to a crest,

````And shouts as it breaks at its

`````loveliest,

````In a glory of rainbow spray!

|BE it also the making of

````Ermyntrude,

````And many a hundred more--

````Compact of foibles and forti-

`````tude--

````Woo'd, won, and widow'd, in

````War.

````God, keep us gallant and unde-

`````filed,

````Worthy of Husband, Lover, or

`````--Child...

````Sweet as themselves at the

`````core!