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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416483" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Ballad</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">With A Serious Conclusion</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Crowd about me, little children--<br>Come and cluster 'round my knee<br>While I tell a little story<br>That happened once with me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My father he had gone away<br>A-sailing on the foam,<br>Leaving me--the merest infant--<br>And my mother dear at home;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For my father was a sailor,<br>And he sailed the ocean o'er<br>For full five years ere yet again<br>He reached his native shore.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And I had grown up rugged<br>And healthy day by day,<br>Though I was but a puny babe<br>When father went away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Poor mother she would kiss me<br>And look at me and sigh<br>So strangely, oft I wondered<br>And would ask the reason why.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And she would answer sadly,<br>Between her sobs and tears,--<br>'You look so like your father,<br>Far away so many years!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then she would caress me<br>And brush my hair away,<br>And tell me not to question,<br>But to run about my play.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus I went playing thoughtfully--<br>For that my mother said,--<br>'YOU LOOK SO LIKE YOUR FATHER!'<br>Kept ringing in my head.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So, ranging once the golden sands<br>That looked out on the sea,<br>I called aloud, 'My father dear,<br>Come back to ma and me!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I saw a glancing shadow<br>On the sand, and heard the shriek<br>Of a sea-gull flying seaward,<br>And I heard a gruff voice speak:--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Ay, ay, my little shipmate,<br>I thought I heard you hail;<br>Were you trumpeting that sea-gull,<br>Or do you see a sail?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And as rough and gruff a sailor<br>As ever sailed the sea<br>Was standing near grotesquely<br>And leering dreadfully.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I replied, though I was frightened,<br>'It was my father dear<br>I was calling for across the sea--<br>I think he didn't hear.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then the sailor leered again<br>In such a frightful way,<br>And made so many faces<br>I was little loath to stay:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But he started fiercely toward me--<br>Then made a sudden halt<br>And roared, '_I_ think he heard you!'<br>And turned a somersault.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then a wild fear overcame me,<br>And I flew off like the wind,<br>Shrieking 'MOTHER!'--and the sailor<br>Just a little way behind!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then my mother heard me,<br>And I saw her shade her eyes,<br>Looking toward me from the doorway,<br>Transfixed with pale surprise</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For a moment--then her features<br>Glowed with all their wonted charms<br>As the sailor overtook me,<br>And I fainted in her arms.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I awoke to reason<br>I shuddered with affright<br>Till I felt my mother's presence<br>With a thrill of wild delight--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Till, amid a shower of kisses<br>Falling glad as summer rain,<br>A muffled thunder rumbled,--<br>'Is he coming 'round again?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I shrieked and clung unto her,<br>While her features flushed and burned<br>As she told me it was father<br>From a foreign land returned.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">. . . . . . .</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I said--when I was calm again,<br>And thoughtfully once more<br>Had dwelt upon my mother's words<br>Of just the day before,--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I DON'T look like my father,<br>As you told me yesterday--<br>I know I don't--or father<br>Would have run the other way.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=James+Whitcomb+Riley">James Whitcomb Riley</a><div class=q>
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Crowd about me, little children--
Come and cluster 'round my knee
While I tell a little story
That happened once with me.

My father he had gone away
A-sailing on the foam,
Leaving me--the merest infant--
And my mother d..."></div>
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