The Old Fashioned Fourth

I wish I were a boy again,

     This Fourth of July;

With cannon crackers in my hand,

     And powder in my eye.

The old days were the happy days,

     And how I wish, don’t you,

That we could live another Fourth

     Just as we used to do?

The early rise, the hurried meal,

     The cannon on the green;

The crackers thrown against our pants

     Where slippers should have been.

The village band, the judge’s speech,

     The tight rope and the pole;

The lemonade and ginger beer

     To win a youngster’s soul!

I would I were a boy again,

     This Fourth of July;

To throw torpedoes at the girls,

     And watch the rockets fly.

O those were happy days indeed,

     With finger knocked askew;

I’d like to have another Fourth

     Just as we used to do!

June 17, 1898

Pub. in Little

Joker for July,

    1898