Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/161

Rh It had seen many years, and it seemed to say,
 * "I'm one of the real old stock,"

To the youthful fry, who with reverence looked
 * On the face of the old school clock.

How many a time have I labored to sketch
 * That yellow and time-honored face,

With its basket of flowers, its figures and hands,
 * And the weights and the chains in their place!

How oft have I gazed with admiring eye,
 * As I sat on the wooden block.

And pondered and guessed at the wonderful things
 * That were inside that old school clock!

What a terrible frown did the old clock wear
 * To the truant, who timidly cast

An anxious eye on those merciless hands,
 * That for him had been moving too fast I

But its frown soon changed; for it loved to smile
 * On the thoughtless, noisy flock,

And it creaked and whirred and struck with glee,—
 * Did that genial, good-humored old clock.