Ethel Lynn Beers

Company K.

THERE'S a cap in the closet,
	Old, tattered, and blue,
That would be little value,
	It may be, to you;
But a crown jewel-studded
	Could not buy it to-day,
With its letters of honor,
	Brave "Company K."

The head that it sheltered
	Needs shelter no more;
Dead heroes make holy
	The trifles they wore;
So a wreath better winning
	Than laurel and bay
Seems the cap of the soldier,
	Marked "Company K."

For eyes have looked steady
	Its visor beneath
O'er the work of the reaper,
	Whose harvest is Death.
Let the muster-roll meagre
	So mournfully say
How foremost in danger
	Went "Company K "—

Whose footstep unbroken
	Came up to the town,
Where rampart and bastion
	Looked fearfully down—
Who, closing up breaches,
	Yet kept on their way,
Till guns downward pointing
	Faced "Company K."

Like cameras fearful
	Stood cannon aloof,
Till the signal was given
	To strike off a proof
Of the soul of the soldier,
	To send up to Him.
(Pray God that he knew them,
	Though bloody and dim!)

Who faltered or shivered?
	Who shunned battle-smoke?
Whose fire was uncertain?
	Whose battle-line broke?
Go ask it of History
	Years from to-day,
And the record shall tell you,
	Not "Company K."

Tho' my darling is sleeping
	To-day with the dead,
And daisies and clover
	Bloom over his head,
I smile, tho' I'm crying
	As I lay it away,
That battle-worn cap
	Lettered "Company K."