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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/oldsweethegrtofm02rile 
 
An Old 
 
 Sweetheart of Mine 
 
 

r a t'lwiiilfei- f'lmitx 
 
An Old 
 
 Sweetheart of Mine 
 
 Tames Whitcomb Riley 
 
 Drawings by 
 
 Howard Chandler Christy 
 
 
 
 Decorations by- 
 Virginia Keep 
 
 The Bowen-Merrill Company 
 Publishers Indianapolis 
 
Copyright, 1888—1899-1902 
 James Whitcomb Riley 
 
 Copyright, 1902 
 The Bowen-Merrill Company 
 
 CONGRESS, 
 Ti^o Csjp\tM Recsived 
 
 NOV, gg fQfl? 
 
 CnPVBIQHT ENTRY 
 
 CLASS «^XXa No, 
 COPY B. 
 
 Pres3 of 
 
 Braunworth & Co. 
 
 Bookbinders and Printers 
 
 Erocklyn, H. Y. 
 
An Old 
 Sweetheart of Mine 
 
 
Inscribed 
 
 To GEORGE C. HITT 
 
 The beginning of whose steadfast friendship was 
 marked by the first publication of these verses 
 which now, expanded by writer, honored by 
 publisher and masterfully graced by artist, seem 
 to be a worthier symbol of the author's grateful 
 and affectionate regard for his earliest friend 
 
 )^C?U 
 
I Frontispiece — An Old Sweetheart of Mine. 
 
 II A fair, illusive vision that would vanish 
 into air 
 
 III The then of changeless sunny days — The 
 now of shower and shine 
 
 IV The old bookshelves and prints along the 
 wall 
 
 V I find the smiling features of an old sweet- 
 heart of mine 
 
 VI Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish 
 with the smoke 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 VII When my truant fancies wander with that 
 old sweetheart of mine 
 
 VI I i The voices of my children and the mother 
 as she sings 
 
 IX For I find an extra flavor in Memory's 
 mellow wine 
 
 X O childhood days enchanted ! O the magic 
 of the spring 
 
 XI To — smile, behind my lesson, at that old 
 sweetheart of mine 
 
 XII A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy 
 grace 
 
XIII When first I kissed her, and she answered 
 
 the caress 
 
 XIV I slipped the apple in it — and the teacher 
 
 didn't know 
 
 XV She gave me her photograph., and printed 
 " Ever Thine " 
 
 XVI And again I feel the pressure of her 
 slender little hand 
 
 XVII Where the vines were ever fruited, and 
 the weather ever fine 
 
 XVIII And she mv faithful sweetheart till the 
 golden hair was gray 
 
 XIX The door is softly opened, and — my wife 
 is standing there 
 
The ordered intermingling 
 
 of the real and the dream, — 
 The mill above the river, 
 
 and the mist above the stream; 
 The life of ceaseless labor, 
 
 brave with song and cheery call- 
 The radiant skies of evening, 
 
 with its rainbow o'er us all. 
 
 

 
 
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 Nay, let me then believe in all 
 the blended false and true 
 
 The semblance of the old love 
 and the substance of the new, — 
 
The then of changeless sunny days- 
 the now of shower and shine — 
 
 But Love forever smiling, — 
 
 as that old sweetheart of mine. 
 

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 As one who cons at evening 
 
 
 o'er an album, all alone, 
 And muses on the faces 
 
 of the friends that he has known, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The lamplight seems to glimmer 
 with a flicker of surprise, 
 
 As I turn it low — to rest me 
 of the dazzle in my eyes, 
 
 
 
And light my pipe in silence, 
 save a sigh that seems to yoke 
 
 Its fate with my tobacco 
 
 and to vanish with the smoke. 
 
 '1 
 
 
 f r ° tfi O * ° -. 
 
m 
 

 
 
 
 
 I is a fragrant retrospection — 
 for the loving thoughts that start 
 Into being are like perfume 
 
 from the blossom of the heart; 
 
A 
 
 
 1 
 

 
 
 
 
 Though I hear beneath my study, 
 like a fluttering of wings, 
 
 The voices of my children 
 
 and the mother as she sings — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JllHUM 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 In fact, to speak in earnest, 
 I believe it adds a charm 
 
 To spice the good a trifle 
 
 with a little dust of harm, — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A 
 
 v r$\ 
 
 
 &"M 
 
 For I find an extra flavor 
 in Memory's mellow wine 
 
 That makes me drink the deeper 
 to that old sweetheart of mine. 
 
• !■(>!-■ 
 

 
 O Childhood-days enchanted! 
 
 O the magic of the Spring! — 
 With all green boughs to blossom white, 
 
 and all bluebirds to sing! 
 
 

 When all the air, to toss and quaff, 
 
 made life a jubilee 
 And changed the children's shout and 
 
 laugh to shrieks of ecstasy. 
 
 w 
 
 

 With eyes half closed in clouds that ooze 
 I hear the old School-bell, 
 
 from lips that taste, as well, 
 p he peppermint and cinnamon, 
 
 

 
 ^ 
 
 
 
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 c> 
 
 And from " Recess" romp in again 
 from " Blackmail's" broken line 
 
 To — -smile, behind my reader, 
 at that old sweetheart of mine. 
 
 a 
 
 
 
.IjiHfii/u I '<«< i ' [Linstv jir. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A face of lily-beauty, 
 
 with a form of airy grace, 
 
 Floats out of my tobacco 
 
 as the "Genii" from the vase; 
 
 
 


 
 I can see the pink sunbonnet 
 and the little, checkered dress 
 
 She wore when first I kissed her 
 and she answered the caress 
 
With the written declaration that, 
 
 "As surely as the vine. 
 Grew 'round the stump," she loved me- 
 
 that old sweetheart of mine. 
 
 
 
--— . 
 

 
 
 Again I made her presents, 
 in a really helpless way, — 
 
 The big " Rhode Island Greening"- 
 I was hungry too, that day! — 
 
But I follow her from Spelling, 
 with her hand behind her — so- 
 
 And I slip the apple in it — 
 and the Teacher doesn't know 
 
WW?. :t.,']ijtr Tiu... 
 

 I give my treasures to her — all, 
 my pencil — blue and red; — 
 
 /Vnd, if little girls played marbles, 
 mine should all be hers instead — 
 
 

 But she gave me her photograph , 
 and printed "Ever Thine" 
 
 Across the back — in blue-and-red — 
 that old sweetheart ot mine ! 
 
 
 
 


 And again I feel the pressure 
 of her slender little hand, 
 
 As we used to talk together 
 of the future we had planned,- 
 
 
A 
 
 
 
 
 
 When I should be a poet, 
 and with nothing else to do 
 
 But write the tender verses 
 that she set the music to. . . 
 
 
 
 r 
 
. I 
 

 
 ^Af 
 
 When we should live together 
 
 in a cozy little cot 
 Hid in a nest of roses, 
 
 with a fairy garden-spot, 
 
Where the vines were ever fruited, 
 and the weather ever fine, 
 
 And the birds were ever singing 
 for that old sweetheart of mine. 
 
 
 
 
 
, . , ,, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 When I should be her lover 
 
 forever and a day, 
 And she my faithful sweetheart 
 
 till the golden hair was gray; 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ct> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 And we should be so happy 
 
 that when either's lips were dumb 
 
 They would not smile in Heaven 
 till the other's kiss had come. 
 
 
 
 
 V\ 
 
 
 
 - -o "C 
 
 A J/ 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 But, ah! my dream is broken 
 by a step upon the stair, 
 
 And the door is softly opened, 
 and — my wife is standing there : 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 Cb 
 
 
 
 Yet with eagerness and rapture 
 
 all my visions I resign 
 To greet the living presence 
 
 of that old sweetheart of mine. 
 
 


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 LB JL