- I used to be a pedagog of country school degree,
I used to spank the towsled kid across my bended
- knee,
- I used to teach some thirty brats for six months in
- the year
- And sweep the floor and build the fires for forty
- dollars per.
- I sit today and weave these rhymes and thank my
- lucky stars
- I do not have to hunt for verbs for busy brains to
- parse,
- I do not eat cold lunch at noon and wade the mud
- and snow;
- I gave up all those dreary things a dozen years ago.
- And yet, when summer days are gone and autumn
- comes apace,
- An impulse springs within my soul, usurping reason's
- place.
- The sun is slanting to the south, the days are clear
- and cool
- And something seems to tell me that I'd like to teach
- a school.
- A vision flits across my mind___a school house small
- and white,
- With many a knot hole in the wall and broken win-
- dow light,
- A lane that came up from the south, with sunflower,
- blooming high
- And tufts of yellow goldenrod, delightful to the eye
- I like to think those boys and girls who gathered
- round my knee
- Are better men and women now for going to school
- to me
- And as they rise to conquer in this world of smile and
- strife
- I only hope I had a part in helping them through life
- It seems as years go floating by on wings so sure and
- fleet
- There s something blots the bitter out and leaves
- me all the sweet;
- For memory can't be trusted if once we give her rein
She brings us all our pleasures back and buries all
- our pain.
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