"This came from Montgomery," he said. "I heard you two quoting poetry,
and I thought I'd come over and read some to you. What do you think of
this? It was written by a fellow in Boston named Holmes and published
when he heard that South Carolina had seceded. He calls it: 'Brother
Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline.'"

"Read it!" exclaimed the others.

"Here goes:

"She has gone--she has left us in passion and pride,
Our stormy-browed sister so long at our side!
She has torn her own star from our firmament's glow,
And turned on her brother the face of a foe.

"O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,
We can never forget that our hearts have been one,
Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty's name
From the fountain of blood with the fingers of flame."

St. Clair read well in a full, round voice, and when he stopped with the
second verse Harry said:

"It sounds well. I like particularly that expression, 'the fingers of
flame.' After all, there's some grief in parting company, breaking up
the family, so to speak."

"But he's wrong when he says we left in passion and pride," exclaimed
Langdon. "In pride, yes, but not in passion. We may be children of
the sun, too, but I've felt some mighty cold winds sweeping down from