Page:Pebbles and Shells (Hawkes collection).djvu/83

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HOW "FIGHTING JOE HOOKER" TOOK LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
Know you the tale of a battle won
Some thirty years ago,
On a mountain top, when the Autumn sun
In the west was sinking low?

It was a fight that the watching throng
Were destined not to see,
For the men went up five thousand strong
Under the canopy

Of God's free sky, through the fleecy clouds
That overhung the plain,
And the eager eyes of the watchful crowds
Strained after them in vain.

'Twas like a storm on a darksome night—
This battle in the clouds,
With the thunder's roll and the leven's light
Among the mountain's shrouds.

The sky was dark on that Autumn day
The air was damp and cold,
But the fields and woods in their mantle lay
Of crimson and of gold;

Fresh laurel grew on the mountain's side
Among the evergreen
And the granite rocks with the verdure vied
To beautify the scene.

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