Francis Bret Harte

Relieving Guard

THOMAS STARR KING.  OBIIT MARCH 4, 1864

Came the relief. ”What, sentry, ho!
How passed the night through thy long waking?”
”Cold, cheerless, dark,--as may befit
The hour before the dawn is breaking.”

”No sight? no sound?”  ”No; nothing save
The plover from the marshes calling,
And in yon western sky, about
An hour ago, a star was falling.”

”A star?  There’s nothing strange in that.”
”No, nothing; but, above the thicket,
Somehow it seemed to me that God
Somewhere had just relieved a picket.”