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James Whitcomb Riley - When We First Played "Show"
Work rating: Low

Wasn`t it a good time,
      Long Time Ago--
  When we all were little tads
      And first played "Show"!--
  When every newer day
      Wore as bright a glow
  As the ones we laughed away--
      Long Time Ago!

  Calf was in the back-lot;
      Clover in the red;
  Bluebird in the pear-tree;
      Pigeons on the shed;
  Tom a-chargin` twenty pins
      At the barn; and Dan
  Spraddled out just like "The
      `Injarubber`-Man!"

  Me and Bub and Rusty,
      Eck and Dunk and Sid,
  `Tumblin` on the sawdust
      Like the A-rabs did;
  Jamesy on the slack-rope
    In a wild retreat,
  Grappling back, to start again--
    When he chalked his feet!


  Wasn`t Eck a wonder,
    In his stocking-tights?
  Wasn`t Dunk--his leaping lion--
    Chief of all delights!
  Yes, and wasn`t "Little Mack"
    Boss of all the Show,--
  Both Old Clown and Candy-Butcher--
    Long Time Ago!

  Sid the Bareback-Rider;
    And--oh-me-oh-_my_!--
  Bub, the spruce Ring-master,
    Stepping round so spry!--
  In his little waist-and-trousers
    All made in one,
  Was there a prouder youngster
    Under the sun!

  And NOW--who will tell me,--
    Where are they all?
  Dunk`s a sanatorium doctor,
    Up at Waterfall;
  Sid`s a city street-contractor;
    Tom has fifty clerks;
  And Jamesy he`s the "Iron Magnate"
    Of "The Hecla Works."

  And Bub`s old and bald now,
    Yet still he hangs on,--
  Dan and Eck and "Little Mack,"
      Long, long gone!
  But wasn`t it a good time,
      Long Time Ago--
  When we all were little tads
      And first played "Show"!
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