Page 149 - Arkansas Confederate Women

130 Confederate Women of Arkansas

piteous notes, or a distant bell tinkles, when shadows play fitfully
across the window pane, thought untrammeled flies down the dim
penumbra of the past, bringing again to life the scenes that were
graven on our hearts when life was young. The Federal army

robbed my children of their rights before they were born ! The

Old South with all its (resources was theirs by inheritance, but
in lieu of its advantages, they have been made a part of the brick

and mortar worked into the building of the New South. The
precious darlings of a former generation lie coffinless on many

a battlefield, the darlings of this generation, full of the Spartan

blood of the mothers of the New South, stand invincible in the

faith of the ultimate glory of the new principle for which our
country surrendered its all. Dead bodies are not all that await a
resurrection to immortal life! • Principles founded on God's
eternal truth, though crushed to earth hold the germ of Divin-
ity, and can never die. Some time a pean of victory will be
sounded, coming from all over this great republic, yea the
voices from hundreds .of battlefields will write in proclaiming

the righteous laurels of our South, and the glorifying of Him
who said: "Not by power, not by might, but by my spirit com-

eth victory."

The hopes so fondly cherished lie
Deep buried in the misty past,

Crushed, yet they cannot die
Their merit is so vast.

Let me dream of their beauty,

The joy of their pristine life;

To reillume by my duty

The charm with which they are rife.

I cannot shut out the glory,
That covered life's morning,

Nor darken the gilded story,
That grew in its roseate dawning.

Oh youth! the elusive maiden
Has slipped unbidden away,
But gems with which she was laden
Are my treasures today.