Shall send us the best of their men!

From A Pen’orth o’ Poetry for the Poor, London, 1884.


The Old Man of the Commons.

“You are old, Father William.” the young man cried;

“The few locks that are left you are grey;

Yet you’re still a most hale and remarkable man—

Now, tell me the reason, I pray.”

“In the days of my youth,” William Ewart replied,

“I remembered that youth would fly fast;