Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/197

 And let the boy keep count." "We'll have the game, Assuredly," said Isaac; "and I think That I will have a drop of cider, also." They marched away together towards the house And left me to my childish ruminations Upon the ways of men. I followed them Down cellar with my fancy, and then left them For a fairer vision of all things at once That was anon to be destroyed again By the sound of voices and of heavy feet— One of the sounds of life that I remember, Though I forget so many that rang first As if they were thrown down to me from Sinai. So I remember, even to this day, Just how they sounded, how they placed themselves, And how the game went on while I made marks And crossed them out, and meanwhile made some Trojans. Likewise I made Ulysses, after Isaac, And a little after Flaxman. Archibald Was injured when he found himself left out, But he had no heroics, and I said so : I told him that his white beard was too long And too straight down to be like things in Homer. "Quite so," said Isaac.—"Low," said Archibald; And he threw down a deuce with a deep grin That showed his yellow teeth and made me happy. So they played on till a bell rang from the door, And Archibald said, "Supper." After that The old men smoked while I sat watching them And wondered with all comfort what might come To me, and what might never come to me; And when the time came for the long walk home With Isaac in the twilight, I could see