The rare _Habanas_ in their box, or gaunt churchwarden-stem That often wags, above the jar, derisively at them. [Illustration] As one who cons at evening o'er an album, all alone, And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known, So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till, in shadowy design, I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine. [Illustration] 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. [Illustration] 'Tis a _fragrant_ retrospection,-- for the loving thoughts that start Into being are like perfume from the blossom of the heart; And to dream the old dreams over is a luxury divine-- When my truant fancies wander with that old sweetheart of mine. [Illustration] Though I hear beneath my study, like a fluttering of wings, The voices of my children and the mother as she sings-- I feel no twinge of conscience to deny me any theme When Care has cast her anchor In the harbor of a dream-- [Illustration] In fact, to speak in earnest, I believe it adds a charm To spice the good a trifle with a little dust of harm,-- For I find an extra flavor in Memory's mellow wine That makes me drink the deeper to that old sweetheart of mine. [Illustration] 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 song and laugh to shrieks of ecstasy. [Illustration] With eyes half closed in clouds that ooze from lips that taste, as well, The peppermint and cinnamon, I hear the old School-bell, And from "Recess" romp in again from "Blackman's" broken line, To--smile, behind my "lesson", at that old sweetheart of mine. [Illustration] A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy grace, Floats out of my tobacco as the "Genii" from the vase And I thrill beneath the glances of a pair of azure eyes As glowing as the summer and as tender as the skies. [Illustration] 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. [Illustration] Again I make her presents, in a really helpless way,-- The big "Rhode Island Greening"-- (I was hungry too, that day!)--