Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/219

 Though his legs bend with their load,

Though his feet they seem so small

That you cannot help forebode

Some disastrous episode

In that noisy hall,

Neither threatening bump nor fall

Little All-Aloney fears,

But with sweet bravado steers

Whither comes that cheery call:

"All-Aloney!"

Ah, that in the years to come,

When he shares of Sorrow's store,—

When his feet are chill and numb,

When his cross is burdensome,

And his heart is sore:

Would that he could hear once more

The gentle voice he used to hear—

Divine with mother love and cheer—

Calling from yonder spirit shore:

"All, all alone!"