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Cruel as fiends in craft and scorn;
Felling the forest with mighty blows;
Planting the meadow plots with corn;
Hunting the hungry wolf to his lair;
Trapping the panther and prowling bear;
Bridging the river; building the mill
Where the stream had leapt at its frolic will;
Rearing, in faith by sorrow tried,
The church and the school-house, side by side;
Fighting the French on the long frontier,
From Louisburg, set in the sea's domains,
To proud Quebec and the woods that hear
Ohio glide to the sunset plains;
And when rest and comfort they yearned to see,
Risking their all to be nobly free!

Honor and love for the valiant dead!
With reverent breath let their names be read,—
Hiltons, Pepperells, Sullivans, Weares,
Broad is the scroll the list that bears
Of men as ardent and brave and true
As ever land in its peril knew,
And women of pure and glowing lives,
Meet to be heroes' mothers and wives!
For not alone for the golden maize,
And the fisher's spoils from the teeming bays,
And the treasures of forest, and hill, and mine
They gave their barks to the stormy brine,—
Liberty, Learning, righteous Law
Shone in the vision they dimly saw