Not simply a showtime, boys and girls,

Is this day of falling flowers;

Not a pageant, a play,

Nor a holiday

Of flags and floral bowers;

It is something more than the day that starts

War memories athrob in veteran hearts:

Far across the years,

To the hopes and the fears
To the days of battle,

Of roar and of rattle

To the Past that now seems so far away

Do the sons of the Blue and the sons of the Gray
Gaze, hand clasping hand, Decoration Day.

For the wreck and the wrong of it, boys and girls,
For the terror and loss as well,

Our hearts must hold

A regret untold

As we think of those who fell;

They brought with them self-sacrifice,

But their blood, on which side they fought,

Remade the Nation, and Progress bought!

We forget the woe;

For we live, and know

That the fighting and sighing

The falling and dying,

Were but the steps towards the Future - the martyrs' way

Adown which the sons of the Blue and the Gray

Look with love and with pride, Decoration Day.

THE SCHOOL ALMANAC

MAY

The sweetest sound our whole year round

'Tis the first robin of the spring! The song of the full orchard choir Is not so fine a thing.

To me, when in sudden spring
I hear the earliest robin's lay,
With the first trill these come again
One picture of the May.

The veil is parted wide, and lo,

A moment, though my eyelids close,

Once more I see that wooded hill

Where the arbutus grows.

E. C. STEDMAN.

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether

fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is

for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion

that we here highly resolve that

of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

LEE'S FAREWELL TO HIS ARMY

Headquarters Army of Northern Va.
April 10th, 1865.

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them; but, feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.

By the terms of agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain there until exchanged.

You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection.

With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.