TO NELL

To-night as I lay dreaming

   Away out in the West,

My mind goes back to long ago

   The days I love the best.

 

I see the old home once again

   With the roses round the door,

And the grape vines on the trellises

   As they were in days of yore.

 

The sponge vine on the bathroom

   And the dear old Mulberry tree,

Which we often climbed as children

   In the days that used to be.

 

And just across the road from home

   I see the old brown school,

Where we were sent as children

   To learn the golden rule

 

And faces flock around me

   Dear faces I know well,

I see one plainer than the rest

   ‘Tis my little sister Nell.

 
Her laughing eyes and curly hair

   I see so very plain,

How sweet if we could only live

   Those olden days again.

 

She always was a tomboy,

   How well I can remember

The goat races we used to have

   In the holidays of December.

 

She was my champion in those days,

   When I’d get in a row

She would always tell a lie or two

   And get me out somehow.

 

Although those days are over

   I never shall forget

For I am but a rover

   And in my childhood yet.

 

Why my memory strayed to-night

   I could not really tell,

Perhaps it was the welcome sight

   Of my dearest sister Nell.

 

                             Dave