Folks drank in every sound to see if fair;
And as theirs scored, just ached to give a shout
For joy; not so when one of their clan fell:
A sad regret upon their mien would tell.
When forty minutes more had raged combat,
Sadly depleted had become those lines:
Many an able speller wounded sat
By the word-missiles from McGuffey’s mines.
Blue Valley, Prairie Gem and Herkimer
Had not a hero left as skirmisher.