Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/212



P in the attic where I slept

When I was a boy, a little boy,

In through the lattice the moonlight crept,

Bringing a tide of dreams that swept

Over the low, red trundle-bed,

Bathing the tangled curly head,

While moonbeams played at hide-and-seek

With the dimples on the sun-browned cheek—

When I was a boy, a little boy!

And oh! the dreams—the dreams I dreamed!

When I was a boy, a little boy!

For the grace that through the lattice streamed

Over my folded eyelids seemed

To have the gift of prophecy,

And to bring me glimpses of times to be

When manhood's clarion seemed to call—

Ah! that was the sweetest dream of all,

When I was a boy, a little boy!