Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/131

Rh I’ll revel in my library; I’ll read De Morgan’s books; I’ll grow so garrulous I fear you’ll write me down a bore; I’ll watch the ways of ants and bees in quiet sunny nooks, I’ll understand Creation as I never did before. When gossips round the tea-cups talk I’ll listen to it all; On smiling days some kindly friend will take me for a drive: I’ll own a shaggy collie dog that dashes to my call: I’ll celebrate my second youth when I am Sixty-five.

Ah, though I’ve twenty years to go, I see myself quite plain, A wrinkling, twinkling, rosy-cheeked, benevolent old chap; I think I’ll wear a tartan shawl and lean upon a cane. I hope that I’ll have silver hair beneath a velvet cap. I see my little grandchildren a-romping round my knee; So gay the scene, I almost wish ’twould hasten to arrive. Let others sing of Youth and Spring, still will it seem to me The golden time’s the olden time, some time round Sixty-five.