A RHYME OF FRIENDS.

Listen now this time

Shortly to my rhyme

That herewith starts

About certain kind hearts

In those stricken parts

That lie behind Calais,

Old crones and aged men

And young children.

About the Picardais,

Who earned my thousand thanks,

Dwellers by the banks

Of mournful Somme

( God keep me therefrom

Until War ends ) —

These, then, are my friends:

Madame Averlant Lune,

From the town of Bethune;

Good Professeur la Brune

From that town also.

He played the piccolo,

And left his locks to grow.

Dear Madame Hojdes,

Sempstress of Saint Fe.

With Jules and Susette

And Antoinette.

Her children, my sweethearts,

For whom I made darts

Of paper to throw

In their mimic show,

“La guerre aux tranchees.”

That was a pretty play.

There was old Jacques Caron,

Of the hamlet Mailleton.

He let me look

At his household book,

“Comment vivre cent ans.”

What cares I took

To obey this wise book,

I, who feared each hour

Lest Death's cruel power

On the poppied plain

Might make cares vain!

By Noeus-les-mines

Lived old Adelphine,

Withered and clean,

She nodded and smiled,

And used me like a child.

How that old trot beguiled

My leisure with her chatter,

Gave me a china platter

Painted with Cherubim

And mottoes on the rim.

But when instead of thanks

I gave her francs

How her pride was hurt!

She counted francs as dirt,

( God knows, she was not rich )

She called the Kaiser bitch,

She spat on the floor,

Cursing this Prussian war,

That she had known before

Forty years past and more.

There was also “Tomi,”

With looks sweet and free,

Who called me cher ami.

This orphan's age was nine,

His folk were in their graves,

Else they were slaves

Behind the German line

To terror and rapine —

O, little friends of mine

How kind and brave you were,

You smoothed away care

When life was hard to bear.

And you, old women and men,

Who gave me billets then,

How patient and great-hearted!

Strangers though we started,

Yet friends we ever parted.

God bless you all: now ends

This homage to my friends.