dots-menu
×

Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1042 The Lyttel Boy

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By EugeneField

1042 The Lyttel Boy

SOME time there ben a lyttel boy

That wolde not renne and play,

And helpless like that little tyke

Ben allwais in the way.

“Goe, make you merrie with the rest,”

His weary moder cried;

But with a frown he catcht her gown

And hong untill her side.

That boy did love his moder well,

Which spake him faire, I ween;

He loved to stand and hold her hand

And ken her with his een;

His cosset bleated in the croft,

His toys unheeded lay,—

He wolde not goe, but, tarrying soe,

Ben allwais in the way.

Godde loveth children and doth gird

His throne with soche as these,

And he doth smile in plaisaunce while

They cluster at his knees;

And some time, when he looked on earth

And watched the bairns at play,

He kenned with joy a lyttel boy

Ben allwais in the way.

And then a moder felt her heart

How that it ben to-torne,

She kissed eche day till she ben gray

The shoon he use to worn;

No bairn let hold untill her gown

Nor played upon the floore,—

Godde’s was the joy; a lyttel boy

Ben in the way no more!