TO OLD FRIENDS WITH YOUNG HEARTS AND YOUNG HEARTS GROWING OLD.

Dear Friends of our youth, should you happen to look

At the curious things in this curious book,

And should you, with quizzical countenance, ask

The how and the why of our curious task —

We could truly reply

To the query of “why —”

To the smile on your lip, and your questioning eye,

That the work was begun

In a spirit of fun,

To amuse when the work of the daylight was done;

And continued, because we believed it would be

Amusement to such as were weary as we

To drift for awhile among goblins and elves,

Or haply make shadows and rhymes for themselves.

For though years have passed since we drifted apart,

We're all of us more or less children at heart.

And maybe yourselves and the youngsters‘ t will please

To dwell for an hour with such creatures as these.

Now, some one has said, in a moment of spleen,

We cannot make pictures of what we've not seen;

But such an assertion deserves only scorn,

For the shape of the Gobolink never was born.

He comes like the marvelous mimes of our dreams,

When one has been supping on salads and creams,

And curious changes of vision take place —

The horse may appear with an elephant face —

The goat with a cane, and the goose with a hat —

Six legs on the dog, and two tails on the cat;

We never can tell, though we're sorely perplexed,

What shape will be shown us, or what will come next;

And these are the things that our Gobolinks do —

Dear friends, and dear children, we give them to you.