You sometimes worry, wonder what Your boy will be a man; You like to look ahead a lot, The future try to scan. You hope he'll be a man in fact As well as man in size, And so his every boyish act You watch with anxious eyes. But do not worry -- you can tell The man your boy will be, If he the truth will follow well You try to make him see; You need not watch his nights and days In search of guilt or guile -- You only need to turn your gaze Upon yourself awhile. There is the place for men to look, For fathers to inquire; Sons do not learn life from a book, They learn it from their sire. The rule you make your boy obey Must be the rule for you -- The boy will heed the thing you say, But more the thing you do. It is not difficult to know The future of the lad, For he will very likely grow Exactly like his dad. The life he leads as time unfolds, When boyhood days are fled, Will be the life he now beholds -- The life his father led. |