TOM VAN ARDEN 141

TO HEAR HER SING 146

THE RIVAL 148

A VARIATION—­TITLE 151

WHERE SHALL WE LAND?—­TITLE 154

WHERE SHALL WE LAND?—­TAILPIECE 156

THE TOUCHES OF HER HANDS—­TITLE 157

THE TOUCHES OF HER HANDS—­TAILPIECE 158

O RARELY SOFT, THE TOUCHES OF HER HANDS 159

A SONG OF LONG AGO 161

WHEN AGE COMES ON 165

FARMER WHIPPLE—­BACHELOR—­TITLE 167

RIDIN’ HOME WITH MARY 171

FARMER WHIPPLE—­BACHELOR—­TAILPIECE 177

THE ROSE—­TITLE 178

HAS SHE FORGOTTEN? 183

BLOOMS OF MAY—­TITLE 185

O LAD AND LASS 186

O GLEAM AND GLOOM AND WOODLAND BLOOM 187

THE SERMON OF THE ROSE 191

[Illustration:  (Illustrations—­tailpiece)]

RILEY LOVE-LYRICS

[Illustration:  (An old sweetheart of mine)]

AN OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE

As one who cons at evening o’er an album all alone,
And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,
So I turn the leaves of fancy till, in shadowy design,
I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.

[Illustration:  (And I light my pipe in silence)]

The lamplight seems to glimmer with a flicker of surprise, As I turn it low to rest me of the dazzle in my eyes, And light my pipe in silence, save a sigh that seems to yoke Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish with the smoke.

’Tis a fragrant retrospection—­for the loving thoughts that start Into being are like perfume from the blossom of the heart; And to dream the old dreams over is a luxury divine—­ When my truant fancy wanders with that old sweetheart of mine.

Though I hear, beneath my study, like a fluttering of wings, The voices of my children, and the mother as she sings, I feel no twinge of conscience to deny me any theme When Care has cast her anchor in the harbor of a dream.