midnight
shouted the boys . `` Strike up something , somebody . '' Every one looked at Dick Graham , who was the finest singer in the squad , and the latter , after a moment 's reflection , cleared his throat and sang as follows : `` We are many in one while there glitters a star In the blue of the heavens above , And tyrants shall quail ` mid their dungeons afar , When they gaze on the motto of love . By the bayonet traced at the midnight of war , On the fields where our glory was won -- Oh , perish the hand or the heart that would mar Our motto of ` Many in One . ' '' A more disgusted lot of boys had never been seen in Barrington than Rodney and his friends were when Dick finished singing the above , which was a part of two verses of '' _ E Pluribus Unum . _ '' Of course the members of the squad all knew the song , but they did not suppose that Dick would have the audacity to mix it up in this way . If they had suspected how the song was going to end , they would have drowned him out in short order .