“At last I’m wise, I will arise, and seek my father’s shack;” thus
muttered low the ancient bo, and then he hit the track. From dwellings
rude he’d oft been shooed, been chased by farmers’ dogs; this poor old
scout, all down and out, had herded with the hogs. His heart was wrong;
it took him long to recognize the truth, that there’s a glad and smiling
dad for each repentant youth. “I will arise, doggone my eyes,” the
prodigal observed, “and try to strike the old straight pike from which I
idly swerved.” The father saw, while baling straw, the truant, sore and
lamed; he whooped with joy; “my swaybacked boy, you’re welcome!” he
exclaimed. Midst glee and mirth two dollars’ worth of fireworks then
were burned; “we’ll kill a cow,” cried father, “now that Reuben has
returned!” His sisters sang, the farmhouse rang with glee till rafters
split, his mother sighed with hope and pride, his granny had a fit. And
it’s today the same old way, the lamp doth nightly burn, to guide you
home, O, boys who roam, if you will but return.
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