What Cheer - A Poem

The Editor owes it to the reader to say that, in preparing the following poem for re-publication, he has ventured to omit some of the stanzas and to make changes in others. The stanzas were omitted because, in his opinion, they broke the continuity or retarded the flow of the narration, slackening the reader’s interest, and could be omitted with advantage to the poem. The changes have been mostly slight and formal, and, when more extensive, have been made to modify (not the meaning, but) only the expression; making it clearer or more direct, or giving it an easier metrical movement.