Dreams of castles old and stately,
    Vaulted halls all life and light,
  Courtly nobles stepping through them,
    Smiling dames with jewels bright.

  Round her own brow, in her dreaming,
    She a coronet has bound;
  Round her waist, so lithe and slender,
    Venus’ girdle she has wound.

  Charms the knights of manly bearing,
    Courtly nobles seek her grace,
  Maidens free from envious passions
    Love her kind and smiling face.

  Now her dreams are growing fainter,
    And her eyelids heavy grow;
  Dull the waning firelight flickers
    On her brow as white as snow.

  Lower droop the heavy eyelids—­
    Weary eyes they cover quite—­
  And the dreamy girl is sleeping
    Softly in the red firelight.

THIRTY DAYS WITH THE SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT.

The 71st Regiment N.Y.S.N.G. left New York to aid in repelling the invasion of Pennsylvania on the 17th of June.  On the 19th, having meantime determined to ‘go to the wars,’ Dick and I presented ourselves at the armory, inquiring whether we could follow and join the regiment, and were told briefly to report there at one o’clock on Monday next, and go on with a squad.

So at one o’clock on Monday we stood ready in the armory, duly clothed in blue and buttons; but long after the appointed hour we waited without moving, I taking the chance to practise in putting on my knapsack and accoutrements, whose various straps and buckles seemed at first as intricate as a ship’s rigging, and benefiting by the kindly hints of regular members who sent substitutes this trip.

At length came the word, ‘Fall in,’ and the squad formed, about a hundred.  A few minutes’ drill ensued, sufficing to show me that I needed considerably more, and then out—­down Broadway to Cortlandt street—­aboard the ferry boat—­into the cars, and about half past seven actually off, amid the cheers and wavings of the bystanders, men, women, and children.

‘Gone for a soger!’ Should I ever come back?  Perhaps I should wish myself home again soon enough.  However, that couldn’t be now, so good-by everything and everybody, and into it head and heels.

I went, among other reasons, chiefly to see what it was like, and I will record my experience;—­for though, since the war began, tales and sketches of military life have been written and read without number, and we have all become sufficiently learned in warlike matters to see how ignorant of, and unprepared for war the nation was at the outbreak of the rebellion; yet, all I saw and learned was new to me, and may prove interesting to some others.

Tuesday morning by daylight we were in Harrisburg, and marched from the cars to the Capitol grounds through the just awaking town, escorted by one policeman armed with a musket.  There a wash at a hydrant refreshed me—­then to breakfast in a temporary shed-like erection near the depot.