The bookman he's a humming-bird—
His feasts are honey-fine,—
(With hi! hilloo!
And clover-dew
And roses lush and rare!)
His roses are the phrase and word
Of olden tomes divine;
(With hi! and ho!
And pinks ablow
And posies everywhere!)
The Bookman he's a humming-bird,—
He steals from song to song—
He scents the ripest-blooming rhyme,
And takes his heart along
And sacks all sweets of bursting verse
And ballads, throng on throng.
(With ho! and hey!
And brook and brae,
And brinks of shade and shine!)
A humming-bird the Bookman is—
Though cumbrous, gray and grim,—
(With hi! hilloo!
And honey-dew
And odors musty-rare!)
He bends him o'er that page of his
As o'er the rose's rim.
(With hi! and ho!
And pinks aglow
And roses everywhere!)
Ay, he's the featest humming-bird,
On airiest of wings
He poises pendent o'er the poem
That blossoms as it sings—
God friend him as he dips his beak
In such delicious things!
(With ho! and hey!
And world away
And only dreams for him!)
O friends of mine, whose kindly words come to me
Voiced only in lost lisps of ink and pen,
If I had power to tell the good you do me,
And how the blood you warm goes laughing through me,
My tongue would babble baby-talk again.
And I would toddle round the world to meet you—
Fall at your feet, and clamber to your knees
And with glad, happy hands would reach and greet you,
And twine my arms about you, and entreat you
For leave to weave a thousand rhymes like these—
A thousand rhymes enwrought of nought but presses
Of cherry-lip and apple-cheek and chin,
And pats of honeyed palms, and rare caresses,
And all the sweets of which as Fancy guesses
She folds away her wings and swoons therein.
CONTENTS
PAGE
[ABE MARTIN] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
[AMERICA'S THANKSGIVING] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
[ANCIENT PRINTERMAN, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
[ART AND POETRY] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
[BACK FROM TOWN] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
[BE OUR FORTUNES AS THEY MAY] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
[BECAUSE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
[CHRISTMAS GREETING] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
[DAN O'SULLIVAN] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
[DEAD JOKE AND THE FUNNY MAN, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
[DOWN TO THE CAPITAL] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
[FRIEND OF A WAYWARD HOUR] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
[GOOD-BY ER HOWDY-DO] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
[HER VALENTINE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
[HERR WEISER] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
[HOBO VOLUNTARY, A] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
[I SMOKE MY PIPE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
[IN THE AFTERNOON] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
[IN THE HEART OF JUNE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
[JAMES B. MAYNARD] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
[LETTER TO A FRIEND, A] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
["LITTLE MAN IN THE TINSHOP, THE"] . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
[LITTLE OLD POEM THAT NOBODY READS, THE] . . . . . . . . . 146
[MOTHER-SONG, A] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
[MY BACHELOR CHUM] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
[MY FRIEND] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
[MY HENRY] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
[MY JOLLY FRIEND'S SECRET] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
[MY OLD FRIEND] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
[OLD BAND, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
[OLD CHUMS] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
[OLD-FASHIONED BIBLE, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
[OLD JOHN HENRY] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
[OLD INDIANY] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
[OLD MAN, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
[OLD MAN AND JIM, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
[OLD SCHOOL-CHUM, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
[OUR OLD FRIEND NEVERFAIL] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
[POET'S LOVE FOR THE CHILDREN, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . 42
[REACH YOUR HAND TO ME] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
[SCOTTY] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
[SONG BY UNCLE SIDNEY, A] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
[STEPMOTHER, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
[THAT NIGHT] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
[TO ALMON KEEPER] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
[TO THE QUIET OBSERVER] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
[TOM VAN ARDEN] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
[TOMMY SMITH] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
[TRAVELING MAN, THE] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
[UNCLE SIDNEY TO MARCELLUS] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
[WHAT "OLD SANTA" OVERHEARD] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
[WHEN OLD JACK DIED] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
[WHEN WE THREE MEET] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60