One of us sat each side of him, as near as we could to his chair,
And then Kit noticed, and so did I, a scar near the edge of his hair.
He saw us looking, and then he said, “My boys, you see that scar,
It isn’t a wound of honor, but something different far.
“I am going to tell you about it. I got it on a day
When I was young as you are, and that isn’t so far away.
You think it easy to move a crowd as breezes sweep the sea,
It may be easy for some men, it never has been for me.
“I was the timidest, awkwardest youth that ever fished in a pool,
Or ever on Wednesday afternoons ran away from school—