Let you and I acquit ourselves as stout Vermonters can.”
The words he uttered on our hearts fell fast in fiery rain;
The blood in wilder current coursed through artery and vein;
An impulse there to do and dare went swiftly through each brain.
Our sight and hearing keener grew before his voice’s tone—
We saw the cottage roof aflame, the corn-crib overthrown;
We heard the widow’s woful wail, the famished orphan’s moan.
We thrilled from heart to finger-tip; the very air grew red;
And casting by the tools of toil, off to the house we sped,
To wipe the chambers of our guns and mould the deadly lead.