Show RECOLLECTIONS How nice the old days were When you and I together Went nutting in the autumn woods And all was golden weather The squirrel peeped the squirrel leaped Through leaves just turning yellow He seemed to grin like harlequin He was a merry fellow How nice the old days were When Christmas came returning The games we played the forfeits paid The snapdragons set burning And on the sly when you and I Talked what we would do one day And what a horrid thing it was When Christmas fell on Sunday I How nIce the springtimes were When days were longer growing We knew each nook of sunniest look Where primroses were blowing And happiest hours of all the year Springs fuller bloom installing The hour that brought the swallow back Or set the cuckoo calling And summer too with leafy June With haytime in the meadows With corncake jarring to the moon And ulowworn chasing shadows Each butterlly each song of bird We loved themnone was stranger And when the snake the tall grass stirred We shrank but loved the danger Too good to last I went to school With mutual tears we parted You seemed to grieve or make believe Neither was brokenhearted Time flew apace I homeward came A bird of prouder feather We could no longer be the same As boy and girl together There was a bar we could not break But still when eve is falling When spring has brought the swallows back And set the cuckoo calling I think how nice the old days were Of childish first affection And put to sleep each waking care With dreaming recollection Spectator |