any of them. Let them pass, just as
the summer storm passes away when the sun peeps out from behind the
clouds and lights up everything with its radiance and makes us all
cheerful, contented and happy. Ah, boys! I have been many years on the
road, traveling over this broad land of ours. Aye! a poor player. I have
grown old in the line of making laughter for others and lending a hand to
bring merriment to my aid. The frost of years is beginning to lay its
mark already on my once fiery locks, and the time is drawing near when I
will have to make my final exit and quit work; and when a man stops
working nature is finished with him, and when nature is through with him
it is pretty near time to go. Well, so be it. In years long gone by I
came across a little poem which I carried about with me months and
months, in the war campaign of the sixties, for, friends, I served my
time as a drummer boy with the old Army of the Potomac. Well, this is a
little gem, at least, I thought it so then. I think it so now. It was
written by a woman. It is said it was the last she ever wrote. I read it
and read it until I committed it to memory. 'Tis short, very short. If
you wish to hear it, I'll recite it for you now. Yes?

"Life! we've been long together
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
'Tis hard to part, when friends are dear,
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear.

"Then steal away--give little warning,
Choose thine own time,
Say not 'Good night,' but in some brighter clime
Bid me--'Good morning.'"

END

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