I' the spring at outset? Where 's my second chance?

Ay, but the babe ... I had forgot my son,

My heir! Now for a burst of gratitude!

There 's some appropriate service to intone,

Some gaudeamus and thanksgiving-psalm!

Old, I renew my youth in him, and poor

Possess a treasure,—is not that the phrase?

Only I must wait patient twenty years—

Nourishing all the while, as father ought,

The excrescence with my daily blood of life.