only dreams for him!)

O friends of mine, whose kindly words come to me
Voiced only in lost lisps of ink and pen,
If I had power to tell the good you do me,
And how the blood you warm goes laughing through me,
My tongue would babble baby-talk again.

And I would toddle round the world to meet you--
Fall at your feet, and clamber to your knees
And with glad, happy hands would reach and greet you,
And twine my arms about you, and entreat you
For leave to weave a thousand rhymes like these--

A thousand rhymes enwrought of nought but presses
Of cherry-lip and apple-cheek and chin,
And pats of honeyed palms, and rare caresses,
And all the sweets of which as Fancy guesses
She folds away her wings and swoons therein.

{xv}

CONTENTS

PAGE

ABE MARTIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
AMERICA'S THANKSGIVING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
ANCIENT PRINTERMAN, THE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
ART AND POETRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
BACK FROM TOWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
BE OUR FORTUNES AS THEY MAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
BECAUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
CHRISTMAS GREETING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
DAN O'SULLIVAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
DEAD JOKE AND THE FUNNY MAN, THE . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
DOWN TO THE CAPITAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
FRIEND OF A WAYWARD HOUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
GOOD-BY ER HOWDY-DO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
HER VALENTINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
HERR WEISER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
HOBO VOLUNTARY, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
I SMOKE MY PIPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
IN THE AFTERNOON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
IN THE HEART OF JUNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
JAMES B. MAYNARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
LETTER TO A FRIEND, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
"LITTLE MAN IN THE TINSHOP, THE" . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
LITTLE OLD POEM THAT NOBODY READS, THE . . . . . . . . . 146
MOTHER-SONG, A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
MY BACHELOR CHUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .