BOYS
"I see they are making shingles out of cement now."
"Then I recall my wish to be a boy again."
One of Theodore Roosevelt's sons, when small, was playing in the
Washington streets when a woman recognized him and said she didn't
think his father would like his playing with so many "common boys."
"My father says there are no common boys," replied the young
Roosevelt.
"He says there are only tall boys and short boys, and good boys and
bad boys, and that's all the kinds of boys there are."
Johnny stood beside his mother as she made her selection from the
green grocer's cart, and the latter told the boy to take a handful of
nuts, but the child shook his head.
"What's the matter, don't you like nuts?" asked the green grocer.
"Yes," replied Johnny.
"Then go ahead and take some."
Johnny hesitated, whereupon the green grocer put a generous handful in
Johnny's cap.
After the man had driven on the mother asked: "Why didn't you take the
nuts when he told you to?"
Johnny winked as he said: "'Cause his hand was bigger'n mine."
Golly! Let him whistle, mother!
He's just boy--that's all.
Let him be one while he can: you'll find it pays.
Jolly little baby brother!
When the shadows fall
You'll be wishin' he was back in boyhood days!
If you'd been in France and seen
All the things that I have seen--
Baby faces that will never
Baby faces be again--
Say! You wouldn't check that whistle
For a million iron men!
Lordy! mother, let him holler!
He's not hurting anything;
And he's carefree as a puppy--just that gay.
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