With eyes half closed in clouds that ooze
from lips that taste, as well,
The peppermint and cinnamon,
I hear the old School-bell,
And from "Recess" romp in again
from "Blackman's" broken line,
To—smile, behind my "lesson",
at that old sweetheart of mine.
A face of lily-beauty,
with a form of airy grace,
Floats out of my tobacco
as the "Genii" from the vase
And I thrill beneath the glances
of a pair of azure eyes
As glowing as the summer
and as tender as the skies.
I can see the pink sunbonnet
and the little, checkered dress
She wore when first I kissed her
and she answered the caress
With the written declaration that,
"As surely as the vine
Grew 'round the stump," she loved me—
that old sweetheart of mine.
Again I make her presents,
in a really helpless way,—
The big "Rhode Island Greening"—
(I was hungry too, that day!)—