Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/150

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144 THE BOYS,

But to change it for the tumult Of those horrid country boys ?

Waking one with wild hallooing

Early every summer day ; Shooting robins, teasing kittens,

Frightening the wrens away ;

Stumbling over trailing flounces ;

Thumbing volumes, gold and blue ; Clamoring for sugared dainties :

Tracking earth the passage through.

These and other kindred trials Fancied we with woeful sigh. " Those boys, those horrid boys, to-morrow!" Sadly whispered Lou and I.

  • * * *

I wrote those lines one happy summer ;

To-day I smile to read them o er, Remembering how full of terror

We watched all day the opening door.

They came "the boys !"

Six feet in stature, Graceful, easy, polished men !

I vowed to Lou, behind my knitting, To trust no mother s words again.

For boyhood is a thing immortal To every mother s heart and eye ;

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