RELIEVING GUARD
Reading edition
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."