Grandpa

My grandpa is the finest man

Excep' my pa. My grandpa can

Make kites an' carts an' lots of things

You pull along the ground with strings,

And he knows all the names of birds,

And how they call 'thout using words,

And where they live and what they eat,

And how they build their nests so neat.

He's lots of fun! Sometimes all day

He comes to visit me and play.

You see he's getting old, and so

To work he doesn't have to go,

And when it isn't raining, he

Drops in to have some fun with me.

He takes my hand and we go out

And everything we talk about.

He tells me how God makes the trees,

And why it hurts to pick up bees.

Sometimes he stops and shows to me

The place where fairies used to be;

And then he tells me stories, too,

And I am sorry when he's through.

When I am asking him for more

He says: "Why there's a candy store!

Let's us go there and see if they

Have got the kind we like to-day."

Then when we get back home my ma

Says: "You are spoiling Buddy, Pa."

My grandpa is my mother's pa,

I guess that's what all grandpas are.

And sometimes ma, all smiles, will say:

"You didn't always act that way.

When I was little, then you said

That children should be sent to bed

And not allowed to rule the place

And lead old folks a merry chase."

And grandpa laughs and says: "That's true,

That's what I used to say to you.

It is a father's place to show

The young the way that they should go,

But grandpas have a different task,

Which is to get them all they ask."

When I get big and old and gray

I'm going to spend my time in play;

I'm going to be a grandpa, too,

And do as all the grandpas do.

I'll buy my daughter's children things

Like horns and drums and tops with strings,

And tell them all about the trees

And frogs and fish and birds and bees

And fairies in the shady glen

And tales of giants, too, and when

They beg of me for just one more,

I'll take them to the candy store;

I'll buy them everything they see

The way my grandpa does for me.

This version taken from Just Folks by Edgar A GuestPublished by The Reilly & Lee Co., Chicago, 1917Pages 72-74