Ah, can I forget why we schoolmates are here?
How often we laugh when we’d fain hide a tear!
The ripples are bright on the waves of mid-ocean;
Eyes dance and smiles play over depths of emotion;
Oh, dear Alma Mater, be patient to-night,
Our hearts, misconstrued, thou canst translate aright!
How memory pictures bright scenes to us all!—
The old, shaky building, the school-room, the hall,
The way the grim doctor read Greek verbs and Latin,
The desk where he wrote and the chair that he sat in,