He reached for a volume and read as follows:—
Oh for one hour of youthful joy!
Give back my twentieth spring!
I’d rather laugh, a bright-haired boy,
Than reign, a gray-beard king.
Off with the spoils of wrinkled age!
Away with Learning’s crown!
Tear out Life’s Wisdom-written page,
And dash its trophies down!
One moment let my life-blood stream