But I follow her from Spelling, with her hand behind her--so-- And I slip the apple in it-- and the Teacher doesn't know! [Illustration] I give my _treasures_ to her--all,-- my pencil--blue-and-red;-- And, if little girls played marbles, _mine_ should all be _hers_, instead!-- But _she_ gave me her _photograph_, and printed "Ever Thine" Across the back--in blue-and-red-- that old sweetheart of mine! [Illustration] And again I feel the pressure of her slender little hand, As we used to talk together of the future we had planned,-- When I should be a poet, and with nothing else to do But write the tender verses that she set the music to.... [Illustration] When we should live together in a cozy little cot Hid in a nest of roses, with a fairy garden-spot, Where the vines were ever fruited and the weather ever fine, And the birds were ever singing for that old sweetheart of mine.... [Illustration] When I should be her lover forever and a day, And she my faithful sweetheart till the golden hair was gray; And we should be so happy that when either's lips were dumb They would not smile in Heaven till the other's kiss had come. [Illustration] But, ah! my dream is broken by a step upon the stair, And the door is softly opened, and--my wife is standing there: Yet with eagerness and rapture all my visions I resign,-- To greet the _living_ presence of that old sweetheart of mine. [Illustration] End of Project Gutenberg's An Old Sweetheart of Mine, by James Whitcomb Riley