Sailing upon the summer seas,
I watch the yachts and pleasure boats
Spurred on by the propelling breeze—
How gracefully my total floats!
[64]
MY first is good when it ’s alone;
The best ones are our mothers’;
And though we have it of our own,
We ’re apt to take another’s.
In many devious paths we stray
When by my first we ’re beckoned;
And by my first we ’re dragged away,
Or else we are my second.
Sometimes my second may be shot,
Which brings much grief and dole;
But when my second’s very hot
It cannot be my whole.
[65]
FIRST sign of Liberty! My first has stood
For half a hundred years, and still is good
For half a hundred more. My last, though thin,
Though old and bent, yet lithe and strong, has been
Strung up for killing U. S. Army men,
Perhaps deprived them of my whole; and when
My whole is lacking, he would be a goose
Who said most stovepipes are of any use.