The Girl Philippa

'Anywhere alone with you in the world would be a sufficient purpose in life for me'
The GIRL PHILIPPA
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK CRAIG
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1919
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
1915, 1916, BY THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
TO MY SON BOBBY
BOB AT SIXTEEN
You can tell a better tale than I; Trap and wing you shoot a better score; You can cast a surer, lighter fly, Catch as can, you'd put me on the floor; Should I hoist a sail beneath the sky Yours the race, away and back to shore. You have mastered all my woodland lore, In the saddle you can give me spades; You have slain your first and mighty boar In the classic Croyden Forest shades; You have heard the Northern rivers roar, You have seen the Southern Everglades. You have creeled your Highland yellow trout Where the Scottish moorlands call us back; You have left me puzzled and in doubt Over tropic specimens I lack— Sphinxes that I know not, huge and stout; Butterflies, un-named, in blue and black. Well, we've had a jolly run, my son, Through a sunny world has lain our trail Trodden side by side with rod and gun Under azure skies where white clouds sail; —Send our journey is not nearly done! Send the light has not begun to fail.
Envoi