OLD 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 DAY 
 
 ROMANCES 
 
 JAMES 
 
 WHITCOMB 
 
 RILEY 
 
in 
 
 \ 
 
 y 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Marion K. Morrow 
 
 University of California Berkeley 
 
OLD 
 
 SCHOOL - DAY 
 ROMANCES 
 
-THE GIRL -WITH GLANCING EYES, 
 
OLD 
 
 SCHOOL DAY 
 ROMANCES 
 
 BY 
 JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 
 
 ILLUSTRATED Cr* 
 DECORATED. 
 
 BY 
 E STETSON CRAWFORD 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 1909 
 JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 
 
TO 
 DR. WILLIAM MORRIS PIERSON 
 
The Girl with Glancing Eyes Frontispiece 
 
 The Watchful Master - - Page 9 
 
 Exercises Friday Afternoon - - Page 10 
 
 A Problem Left Unsifted - Page 1 1 
 
 The Half- Forgotten Tune - Page 12 
 
 A Youngster Far From Funny - Page 13 
 
 As He Waves the Warning Rod - Page 17 
 
 The Smell of Something Burning - Page 25 
 
 Scotland's Burning! - Page 33 
 
 A Hush of Holy Feeling - - Page 41 
 
Of the wealth of facts and fancies 
 
 That our memories may recall, 
 The old school-day romances 
 
 Are the dearest, after all ! 
 When some sweet thought revises 
 
 The half-forgotten tune 
 That opened "Exercises" 
 
 On "Friday Afternoon." 
 
We seem to hear the clicking 
 Of the pencil and the pen, 
 
 And the solemn ceaseless ticking 
 Of the time - piece ticking then ; 
 
And we note the watchful master, 
 As he waves the warning rod, 
 
 With our own heart beating faster, 
 Than the boy's who threw the wad 
 
Some little hand uplifted, 
 
 And the creaking of a shoe: 
 A problem left unsifted 
 
 For the teacher's hand to do. 
 
The murmured hum of learning 
 And the flutter of a book 
 
 The smell of something burning, 
 And the school's inquiring look. 
 
The bashful boy in blushes; 
 
 And the girl, with glancing eyes, 
 Who hides her smiles, and hushes 
 
 The laugh about to rise, 
 
Then, with a quick invention, 
 Assumes a serious face, 
 
 To meet the words, "Attention! 
 Every scholar in his place! 
 
The opening song, page 20 
 
 Ah! dear old "Golden Wreath, 
 
 You willed your sweets in plenty; 
 And some who look beneath 
 
HE WAVES THE WARNING 
 
The leaves of Time will linger, 
 And loving tears will start, 
 
 As Fancy trails her finger 
 
 O'er the index of the heart. 
 
''Good news from Home' We hear it 
 
 Welling tremulous, yet clear 
 And holy as the spirit 
 
 Of the song we used to hear 
 
Good news for me" (A throbbing 
 And an aching melody) 
 
 Has come across the" (sobbing, 
 Yea and salty) "dark blue sea! 
 
Or the paean " Scotland's burning! 
 
 With its mighty surge and swell 
 Of chorus, still returning 
 
 To its universal yell 
 
Till we're almost glad to drop to 
 Something sad and full of pain 
 
 And "Skip verse three," and stop, too, 
 Ere our hearts are broke again. 
 
Then "the big girls'" composition 
 
 With their doubt, and hope, and glow 
 
 Of heart and face, conditions 
 Of "the big boys" even so, 
 
THE SMELL OF SOMETHING BURNING 
 
When themes of "Spring" and "Summer, 
 
 % 
 
 And of "Fall" and "Wintertime" 
 Droop our heads and hold us dumber 
 Than the sleighbell's fancied chime. 
 
Elocutionary Science 
 
 Still in changeless infancy: 
 With its "Cataline's Defiance 
 
 And "The Banner of the Free 
 
Or lured from Grandma's attic, 
 
 A ramshackle rocker there- 
 Adds a shriek of the dramatic 
 To the poet's "Old Arm-Chair. 
 
Or the ' ' Speech of Logan ' ' shifts us 
 From the pathos to the fire; 
 
 And Tell (with Gessler) lifts us 
 Many noble notches higher 
 
Till a youngster, far from sunny, 
 With sad eyes of watery blue, 
 
 Winds up with something "funny, 
 Like "Cock-a-doodle-do." 
 
 > 9 
 
Then a Dialogue selected 
 For its realistic worth :- 
 
 The Cruel Boy detected 
 
 With a turtle turned to earth 
 
SCOTLAND'S BURNING! 
 
Back -downward; and, in pleading, 
 The Good Boy strangely gay 
 
 At such a sad proceeding 
 
 Says, "Turn him over, pray!" 
 
 JL jj 
 

 So the exercises taper 
 
 Through gradations of delight 
 To the reading of "The Paper" 
 
 Which is entertaining quite! 
 
For it goes ahead and mentions 
 
 If a certain Mr. O. 
 Has serious intentions 
 
 That he ought to tell her so. 
 
It also "Asks permission 
 
 To intimate to 'John' 
 The dubious condition 
 
 Of the ground he's standing on"; 
 
And, dropping the suggestion 
 To "mind what he's about," 
 
 It stuns him with the question 
 
 "Does his mother know he's out? 
 
And among the contributions 
 To this "Academic Press 
 
 Are "Versified Effusions 
 By "Our Lady editress 
 
HUSH OF HOLY FEELING 
 
f 
 
 /^^ 
 
 Which fact is proudly stated 
 
 By the Chief of the concern, 
 
 Though the verse communicated 
 
 Bears the pen-name "Fanny Fern." 
 
When all has been recited, 
 
 And the teacher's bell is heard 
 
 And visitors, invited, 
 
 Have dropped a kindly word, 
 
A hush of holy feeling 
 
 Falls down upon us there, 
 
 As though the day were kneeling, 
 With the twilight for the prayer. 
 
Midst the wealth of fact and fancies 
 That our memories may recall, 
 
 Thus the old school -day romances 
 Are the dearest, after all! 
 
SJ i * 
 
 When some sweet thought revises 
 The half-forgotten tune 
 
 That opened "Exercises," 
 On "Friday Afternoon." 
 
01 
 

 7 
 
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