Robert W Service

In the gay, gleamy morn I adore to go walking,
And oh what sweet people I meet on my way
I hail them with joy for I love to be talking,
Although I have nothing important to say

I watched one day a parrot grey - 'twas in a barber shop
"Cuckold
" he cried, until I sighed: "You feathered devil, stop
"Then balefully he looked at me, and slid along his perch,

Let us have birthdays every day,(I had the thought while I was shaving)Because a birthday should be gay,
And full of grace and good behaving
We can't have cakes and candles bright,
And presents are beyond our giving,

Where are the dames I used to
In Dawson in the days of yore
Alas, it's fifty years ago,
And most,

A barefoot boy I went to school To save a cobbler's fee,
For though the porridge pot was full A frugal folk were we;
We baked our bannocks, spun our wool, And counted each bawbee
We reft our living from the soil, And I was shieling ...

Says I to my Missis: "Ba goom, lass
you've something I see, on your mind
"Says she: "You are right,
Sam,

Wars have been and wars will
Till the human race is run;
Battles red by land and sea,
Never peace beneath the sun

I deem that there are lyric
So ripe with radiance and cheer,
So rich with gratitude and
That they enrapture all the year

I am a mild man, you'll agree, But red my rage is,
When folks who borrow books from me Turn down their pages
Or when a chap a book I lend, And find he's loaned
Without permission to a friend - As if he owned it...

This crowded life of God's good
No man has relished more than I;
I've been so goldarned busy livingI've never had the time to die
So busy fishing, hunting, roving,

There's sunshine in the heart of me,
My blood sings in the breeze;
The mountains are a part of me,
I'm fellow to the trees

If dogs could speak,
O Mademoiselle,
What funny stories they could tell
For instance, take your little "peke,"How awkward if the dear could speak