An’ neighbor women’s sure to come
A visitin’ a feller’s home,
An’ talkin’ when they look at me
’Bout how thick us two used to be—
A stealin’ off from school, an’ such—
An’ askin’ “Do I miss him much?”
’Till I sneak off out doors, you see,
They just can’t let a feller be!
Well, I walked down the road a bit,
Smith’s dog came out, I throwed at it,
An’ do you know it never howled
Same as it always did, or growled,
It seemed to say, “why! Jim’s alone,
Now, I wonder where’s that other one?”
Afore I knew it I was down
Way at the other end of town,
A hangin’ round in the old way
For some one to come out an’ play.
There wasn’t no one there to look
So I slipped in to our old nook,
I found his knife hid in the grass
Where we’d been Zulus at the pass,
The can of bait, an’ hook an’ line,
Were lyin’ with the ball of twine,
An’ “Jim,” I seemed to hear him say,
“The fish will suffer some to-day!”
’Twas more than I could stand just then,
I got up to go off home, when
Someone kissed me on the cheek,
An’ hugged me so I couldn’t speak,
You won’t believe it, like as not,
But ’twas Jack’s mother, an’ a lot
Of great big tears came stealin’ down
Right on my face; she didn’t frown
A single bit—kept sayin’ low,
“My blue eyed boy! I loved you so!”
Of course I knew just right away
That she meant Jack—my eyes are grey—
But Jack, he had the bluest eyes,
Blue like you see up in the skies,
An’ shine that used to come and go—
One misses eyes like his you know.
An’ by-an-by she up and tried
To tell me that she’d cried an’ cried,
A thinkin’ of the times that she
Had scolded Jack an’ scolded me,
An’ other things that I won’t tell
To anyone, because—O, well,
Boys can’t do much, but they can hold
Tight on to secrets till they’re old.
She’s Jack’s relation, that’s why she
Feels kind of lovin’ like to me,
But when she called me her own lad,
Oh, say, I felt just awful bad;
My head it went round in a whirl,
I up and cried just like a girl.
But say, if Jack did see us two
He laughed a little, don’t you know,
For if I’d ever brag around
That I’d lick some one, safe an’ sound,
He’d laugh an’ say, “Jim, hold your jaw!
You know your’re scared to death of maw.”
Oh! I’d give all this world away
If I could hear him laugh to-day,
I get so lonesome, it’s so still
An’ him out sleepin’ on that hill;
For nothin’ seems just worth the while
A-doin’ up in the old style,
Cause everything we used to do
Seemed always jus’ to need us two.
My throat aches till I think ’twill crack,
I don’t know why—it must be Jack.
There ain’t no fun, there ain’t no stir,
His mother—well ’tis hard on her,
But she can knit, and sew, and such—
Oh, she can’t miss him half so much!
A Pledge.
I SIT alone, to-night—to-day our two roads meet,
You helped me find the right, and I will not forget;
I’m pledged to do my best with lips that will not lie,
To strive with mind and heart as all the days go by.