Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/161

It had seen many years, and it seemed to say,
"I'm one of the real old stock,"
To the youthful fry, who with reverence looked
On the face of the old school clock.

How many a time have I labored to sketch
That yellow and time-honored face,
With its basket of flowers, its figures and hands,
And the weights and the chains in their place!
How oft have I gazed with admiring eye,
As I sat on the wooden block.
And pondered and guessed at the wonderful things
That were inside that old school clock!

What a terrible frown did the old clock wear
To the truant, who timidly cast
An anxious eye on those merciless hands,
That for him had been moving too fast I
But its frown soon changed; for it loved to smile
On the thoughtless, noisy flock,
And it creaked and whirred and struck with glee,—
Did that genial, good-humored old clock.