AH, what if they should? What if your boy or mine Should cross o'er the threshold which marks out the line 'Twixt virtue and vice, 'twixt pureness and sin, And leave all his innocent boyhood within? Oh, what if they should, because you and I, While the days and the months and the years hurry by, Are too busy with cares and with life's fleeting joys To make round our hearthstones a place for the boys? A place for the boys, dear mother, I pray, As cares settle round our short earthly way; Don't let us forget, by our kind, loving deeds, To show we remember their pleasures and needs, Though our souls may be vexed with problems of life, And worn with besetments and toilings and strife, Our hearts will keep younger,--your tired heart and mine-- If we give them a place in their innermost shrine; And to our life's latest hour 'twill be one of our joys That we kept a small corner,--a place for the boys. |