The Raggedy Man-one time, when he
Wuz makin' a little bow'-n'-orry fer me,
Says, "When you 're big like your Pa is
Air you go' to keep a fine store like his —
An' be a rich merchunt- an' wear fine clothes?
Er what air you go' to be, goodness knows?"
An' nen he laughed at 'Lizabuth Ann,
An' I says, "'M go' to be a nice Raggedy Man!"
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
Oh, the days gone by! Oh, the days gone by!
The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye; The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quail
As he piped across the meadows sweet as any nightingale ; When the bloom was on the clover, and the blue was in the sky, And my happy heart brimmed over, in the days gone by.
In the days gone by, when my naked feet were tripped,
By the honeysuckle's tangles, where the water lilies dipped,
And the ripple of the river lipped the moss along the brink,
Where the placid-eyed and lazy-footed cattle came to drink,
And the tilting snipe stood fearless of the truant's wayward cry,
And the splashing of the swimmer, in the days gone by.
Oh, the days gone by! Oh, thẻ days gone by!
The music of the laughing lip, the lustre of the eye;
The childish faith in fairies, and Aladdin's magic ring,
The simple, soul-reposing, glad belief in everything,
When life was like a story, holding neither sob nor sigh,
In the olden, golden glory of the days gone by.
1 From "Rhymes of Childhood" by James Whitcomb Riley. Copyright, 1900, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.