Where Be They All Today

                                            

Sometimes I git to feelin’ blue an’ wander to the past,

Way back to them ol’ schoolboy days thet’s disappeared so fast;

I set an’ think about the boys with whom I uster play,

An’ wonder ez I call them up where be they all today.

Each face I picture jest ez clear ez tho’ ‘twere yesterday;

I see ‘em all, big ones, an’ small, in jest the same ol’ way.

“Dick” Brown, Clark Gates, an’ “Andy” Cook, an’ big George Worthington;

Frank Fowler, “Sid”, the Thomas boys, good fellers, ev’ry one.

“Chan” Brooks, Frank Smith, John Silliman, an’ Charlie Brainerd, too,

Called “Trooper” now an’ then fur short, come up before my view;

Fred Hurd, Mark Clark, the Jackson boys, all fellows big an’ gay,

All schoolmates in the “up-town” school, where be they all today?

They roamed the hills at “hunt the wolf”, an’ sometimes “barbaree”,

Or “snap the whip” ef they could git a little chap like me

To take the end and git a whirl an’ set him spinnin’ – say,

I wonder, after all these years, where be them boys today?

The schoolhouse an’ the green in front, an’ “Theodore’s” brook below,

An’ “Garry’s” medder o’er the hill they reckylect, I know;

An’ “Cowdry’s pond”, the sawmill near, the grove an’ woods beyund,

The cider mill an’ other haunts, an’ orchards without end.

Then came the Younger boys I knew, “Ed” Gundshaw, an’ the Halls,

George Spencer, Arthur Lewis, an’ “Tom” Johnson from the Falls;

“Charl’” Richmond, Arthur Buell, an’ his brother Alvin, say,

‘d like to have another game with them same boys today.

There may be others, guess there is, but years hev gone sence then,

An’ I furgit the names uv all, who now are strappin’ men;

But I jest wish ‘at I could see each one, where’er they stray,

An’ take their hands an’ say tew them, “How be yew boys today?”

Ah, some hev found their restin’ place, beyond the green an’ blue,

An’ some are there, an’ work to home, good fellers, staunch an’ true;

An’ some hev left the town fur good an’ never homeward stray,

All seperated, here an’ there – where be they all today?

I wish kind fate would lend a hand an’ bring ‘em home once more,

An’ I could meet ‘em on the green, ez in the days uv yore;

Wisht I could meet ‘em ev’ryone, in jest the same ol’ way

The fellers from the uptown school, where be they all today?

March 14, 1902