Page:Captain Craig; a book of poems.djvu/102

88 Through cold and fire with him, that it brings To this old heart of mine an ache that you Have not yet lived enough to know about. But even unto you, with your boy's faith, Your freedom, and your untried confidence, A time will come to find out what it means To know that you are losing what was yours, To know that you are being left behind; And then the long contempt of innocence— God bless you, boy!—don't think the worse of it Because an old man chatters in the shade— Will all be like a story you have read In childhood and remembered for the pictures. And when the best friend of your life goes down, When first you know in him the slackening That comes, and coming always tells the end,— Now in a common word that would have passed Uncaught from any other lips than his, Now in some trivial act of every day, Done as he might have done it all along But for a twinging little difference That bites you like a squirrel's teeth—oh, yes, Then you will understand it well enough. But oftener it comes in other ways; It comes without your knowing when it comes; You know that he is changing, and you know