Bade home and my country adieu.
“Ah, were I but stronger and younger,
How eager and ready, to-day,
I would move with the bravest and boldest,
As first in the perilous fray;
But now, while the rest do the fighting,
A laggard, with women I stay.”
The women they laughed when they heard him,
But one answered kindly, and said,
“Uncle John, though the days have departed