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Boys and Girls / The Verses of James W. Foley

Chapter 2: ILLUSTRATIONS by Reginald Birch
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About This Book

A collection of short poems that evoke childhood play, family routines, and neighborhood life through concise, rhymed vignettes. Verses move between comic sketches and gentle domestic scenes, sometimes using dialectal speech for humorous effect and often offering lullabies, seasonal pieces, or small moral observations. Many poems adopt a child’s perspective or an adult’s recollection of youthful episodes, focusing on games, errands, holidays, and minor misadventures. The book favors brief lyrical and narrative moments rather than a single sustained story, balancing simplicity for young readers with occasional nostalgia.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Boys and Girls

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Boys and Girls

Author: James W. Foley

Release date: October 21, 2020 [eBook #63514]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Charlene Taylor, Sharon Joiner, Chuck Greif
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOYS AND GIRLS ***

THE VERSES OF
JAMES W. FOLEY

 

 

 

SONG OF SUMMER DAYS

BOYS AND GIRLS


THE VERSES OF
JAMES W. FOLEY



NEW YORK
E·P·DUTTON & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

 

COPYRIGHT, 1905, 1907, 1909, 1910, 1911
BY JAMES W. FOLEY
———
COPYRIGHT, 1913
BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY


THE·PLIMPTON·PRESS
NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A·

 

TO MY WIFE

 

 

CONTENTS

 PAGE
Away3
The Reciprocity of Smiles5
A Domestic Ripple7
The Adams’s Boys9
Billy Peeble’s Christmas11
The Way He Used to Do16
A Boy’s Vacation Time18
A Boy’s Choice20
A Discouraged Kindergartner22
The Delusion of Ghosts24
A Story of Self-Sacrifice25
The Lost Child28
Doughnutting Time30
A Modern Miracle32
Nervoustown34
Song of Summer Days36
What Mother Doesn’t Know37
So Lonesome Now39
A Little Love Story41
On a Noiseless Fourth43
Conscious Ignorance45
The Playtime of Bachelor Bill47
How Henry Blake Knows49
The Land of Blow Bubbles50
The Gingercake Man52
Lonesome54
The Garden of Play57
We Ain’t Scared of Pa59
A Pearl of Price61
Dear Little, Queer Little Man63
Girl of Mine65
Chums67
The Lost Boy69
Lines to a Baby Girl71
Little Mischefuss73
The Travels of Mortimer Brown75
Adventurers Three77
When They Love You So79
Somebody Did81
The Waders83
The Prisoned Pupil85
A Prayer for Jimmy Banks87
A Child’s Christmas Prayer89
Henry Blake’s Chum91
Once Upon a Time93
The Way to School95
A Present for Little Boy Blue97
The Evolution of an Adoption99
Some Girls that Mamma Knew101
Gone103
The Neighbor’s Boys104
A Quiet Afternoon106
The Ownerless Toys108
The Stranger110
In Vacation Time112
Bereaved114
Two Little Maids117
A New Christmas Carol118
The Reconciliation of Pa120
A World without Care122
Right After School124
A Plea for Old Friends127
The Boyville Cadets129
A Little Boy I Know132
Asleep at the Circus135
The Barriers137
The Plaint of the New Doll139
A Child’s Almanac141
The Loser143
Back to School146
Disenchantments148
A Rainy Night150
Kitchen Miracles152
Jim Brady’s Big Brother154
The Scapegoat156
A Tragedy of Center Field158
In Swimming161
An Unusual Chum163
And Just Then164
Afterwards167
Circus Day168
The Tour of a Smile170
When Grandpa Plays172
The Parted Ways175
A Message Home177
Lullaby180
Disguising Toil182
Little Girl with the Curls185
My Wonderful Dad187
Remembrances, Bill190
The Bereavement192
In Childhood Time194
Don’t196
Extinguished198
The Uncheered Hero199
Old Hallowe’en Friends201
A Refuge in Distress203
The Lost Heart205
Verses of a Little Child208
Golden Days in Slowville210
The Heart of a Child213
The Strenuous Life214
A Song of Motherhood216
Youth218
After the Years220
A Verse to Memory222
Lest I Forget224
Echo of a Song226
Lovers’ Lane228
Daddy Knows230
To Children at the Hearth232
A Toast to the Small Boy234
An Adventurous Day236
Poem of the Foragers238

ILLUSTRATIONS
by Reginald Birch

Song of Summer DaysFrontispiece
The Adams’s Boysfacing page 10
Billy Peeble’s Christmas14
A Modern Miracle32
A Little Love Story42
The Gingercake Man52
The Waders84
A Prayer for Jimmy Banks88
Once Upon A Time94
The Neighbor’s Boys104
Asleep at the Circus136
In Swimming162
The Parted Ways176
Lullaby180
Verses of a Little Child208
Lover’s Lane228

 

 

 

 

BOYS AND GIRLS

AWAY

“I WON’T be long,” the Little Boy said,
As he clattered him down the stair,
And found him a hat for his curly head
And called to a dog somewhere.
Then off like a flash down the shady lane
With a whistle and cry and song;
And back to us ever it came again:
“I won’t be gone very long.”
“I won’t be long,” the Little Boy said,
As we saw him among the trees,
His eyes all bright and his cheeks all red,
A friend of the birds and bees;
Then through the hedges and out of the gate,
For naught in the world goes wrong
With a boy of six or seven or eight—
“I won’t be gone very long.”
“I won’t be long,” the Little Boy said,
“Don’t wait any supper—you see,
I’ll just have a bowl of milk and bread
And my dog he will eat with me.”
Then he swung his hat on its tangled string
Till the curly dog wagged his tail
And romped and played like a boy in spring
And barked him a comrade’s hail.
“I won’t be long,” the Little Boy said—
Oh, Mother of him, don’t cry!
The leaves come green again, yellow and red,
And the years and the years go by.
But sometime he’ll come, as we’ve seen him do,
With the bark of a dog and a song,
For it must be true—oh, it must be true
That he’ll not be gone very long!

THE RECIPROCITY OF SMILES