We knew it in those darker days

When all the kind, familiar ways

And all the tenderness of life

Seemed lost in bitterness and strife;

When, torn with shot and riddled through,

Lay in the dust our Red and Blue,

Dropped by the gallant hands that bore,

“The nation’s heart is sound at core.”

We said it when the war-cloud rent,

And out of field and out of tent