While life was a fairy tale sung in rhyme,

When phantoms grim of a future day

Were hid in the mists of the far away;

When we carved for ourselves from our June daydreams

(Only yesterday now it seems),

Statues of greatness, Jim and I,

In the mystical realm of the By-and-By!

Off for a swim on an afternoon,—

The moments—why would they fly so soon!

At the gate stood mother, who never was strong: