Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Labor Day/Bonny Boy

HO! BONNY BOY.

WALTER M. HAZELTINE.

Ho! bonny boy, with cheek of brown,
In the river wading.
What the dreams within your head,
Slowly, slowly fading?
Vacation’s nearly gone, you say.
With school-time growing nearer.
And every moment of the day
Is growing sweetly dearer.

Slowly summer steals away,
Vacation joys are fading,
While every moment is so dear,
In the river wading.
Turtle sleeping on a log.
Sand-peep where the beach is;
Cherries growing in the sun,
Where the cat-bird screeches.

But the river, bonny boy.
Is not always sleeping;
There is work for it and you.
There is joy and weeping.
Time in summer for your fun,
Time to work in winter.
For the race is always won.
By the fleetest sprinter.

Ho! curly-head, this lesson learn,—
The world is only seeming
To the boy who idly stands
And wastes the day in dreaming.
There’s a work for you somewhere,
And a way to follow;
There’s a joy for every care,
A hill for every hollow.