Complete Poetical Works. Bret Harte

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           Just where the tide of battle turns,

           Erect and lonely stood old John Burns.

           How do you think the man was dressed?

           He wore an ancient long buff vest,

           Yellow as saffron,—but his best;

           And buttoned over his manly breast

           Was a bright blue coat, with a rolling collar,

           And large gilt buttons,—size of a dollar,—

           With tails that the country-folk called "swaller."

           He wore a broad-brimmed, bell-crowned hat,

           White as the locks on which it sat.

           Never had such a sight been seen

           For forty years on the village green,

           Since old John Burns was a country beau,

           And went to the "quiltings" long ago.

           Close at his elbows all that day,

           Veterans of the Peninsula,

           Sunburnt and bearded, charged away;

           And striplings, downy of lip and chin,—

           Clerks that the Home Guard mustered in,—

           Glanced, as they passed, at the hat he wore,

           Then at the rifle his right hand bore,

           And hailed him, from out their youthful lore,

           With scraps of a slangy repertoire:

           "How are you, White Hat?"  "Put her through!"

           "Your head's level!" and "Bully for you!"

           Called him "Daddy,"—begged he'd disclose

           The name of the tailor who made his clothes,

           And what was the value he set on those;

           While Burns, unmindful of jeer and scoff,

           Stood there picking the rebels off,—

           With his long brown rifle and bell-crown hat,

           And the swallow-tails they were laughing at.

           'Twas but a moment, for that respect

           Which clothes all courage their voices checked;

           And something the wildest could understand

           Spake in the old man's strong right hand,

           And his corded throat, and the lurking frown

           Of his eyebrows under his old bell-crown;

           Until, as they gazed, there crept an awe

           Through the ranks in whispers, and some men saw,

           In the antique vestments and long white hair,

           The Past of the Nation in battle there;

           And some of the soldiers since declare

           That the gleam of his old white hat afar,

           Like the crested plume of the brave Navarre,

           That day was their oriflamme of war.

           So raged the battle.  You know the rest:

           How the rebels, beaten and backward pressed,

           Broke at the final charge and ran.

           At which John Burns—a practical man—

           Shouldered his rifle, unbent his brows,

           And then went back to his bees and cows.

           That is the story of old John Burns;

           This is the moral the reader learns:

           In fighting the battle, the question's whether

           You'll show a hat that's white, or a feather!