Page:The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses.djvu/115

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NEW YEAR'S EVE

They'll jeer at me, and they'll sneer at me, and they'll call me a whiskey soak;
("Have a drink? Well, thankee kindly, sir, I don't mind if I do.")
A drivelling, dirty, gin-joint fiend, the butt of the bar-room joke;
Sunk and sodden and hopeless—"Another? Well, here's to you!"


McGuffy is showing a bunch of the boys how Bob Fitzsimmons hit;
The barman is talking of Tammany Hall, and why the ward boss got fired.
I'll just sneak into a corner and they'll let me alone a bit;
The room is reeling round and round . . . O God! but I'm tired, I'm tired. . . .


******


Roses she wore on her breast that night. Oh, but their scent was sweet!

Alone we sat on the balcony, and the fan-palms arched above;

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