Melon-choly Days

The water melon days have come,

     The best of all the year;

And now the freckled country boy

     Is full of autumn cheer.

The days may melancholy be,

     As poets yearly sing,

When leaves are falling from the trees,

     And little birds take wing.

But all the melancholy ones

     That we can seem to catch,

Are those poor farmers who have tilled

     A water melon patch.

Aug. 21, 1904