The games the boys played were war games.

They had battles in the woods, between the free-state and the pro-slavery men, and once--twice--three times there marched by on the road real soldiers, and it was no unusual thing to see a dragoon dismount at the town well and water his horse.

The big boys in school affected spurs, and Miss Lucy brought to school with her one morning a long bundle, which, when it was unwrapped, disclosed the sword of her father, Captain Barnes, presented to him by his admiring soldiers at the close of the "Black Hawk War." John traded for a tin fife and learned to play "Jaybird" upon it, though he preferred the jew's-harp, and had a more varied repertory with it.

Was it an era of music, or is childhood the period of music?
Perhaps this land of ours was younger than it is now and sang more lustily, if not with great precision; for to the man who harks back over the years, those were days of song.

All the world seemed singing--men in their stores and shops, women at their work, and children in their schools.