Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/39

 And, oh! the funny capers

I cut with Hildegarde and Fred!

The pranks we heedless children played,

The deafening, awful noise we made—

'T would shock my family, if they read

About it in the papers!

The Hawthorne children all were smart;

The girls, as I recall,

Had comprehended every art

Appealing to the head and heart,

The boys were gifted, all;

'T was Hildegarde who showed me how

To hitch the horse and milk a cow

And cook the best of suppers;

With Beatrix upon the sands

I sprinted daily, and was beat,

While Henry stumped me to the feat

Of walking round upon my hands

Instead of on my "uppers."

The Hawthorne children liked me best

Of evenings, after tea;

For then, by general request,

I spun them yarns about the west—

And all involving Me!

I represented how I'd slain

The bison on the gore-smeared plain,