"About the time, That May before she finished High School, Elenor Broke loose, ran wild, do you remember, Carl? She had some trouble in her home, I heard-- She told me so. That Alma Bell affair Made all the fellows wonder, as you know, What kind of game she was, if she was game For me, or you, or anyone. Besides She had flirting eye, a winning laugh, And she was eighteen, and a cherry ripe. This Alma Bell affair and ills at home Made her spurt up and dart out like a fuse Which burns to powder wet and powder heated Until it burns; she burned, you see, and stopped When principles or something quenched the flame. I walked with her from school a time or two, When she was hinting, flirting with her eyes, I know it now, but what a dunce I was, As most men when they're twenty." "Well, now listen! A little later on an evening, I see her buggy riding with Roy Green, That rake, do you remember him, deadbeat, Half drunkard then, corrupted piece of flesh? She sat up in defiance by his side, Her chin stuck out to tell the staring ones: Go talk or censure to your heart's content. And people stood and stared to see her pass And shook their heads and wondered." "Afterward I learned from her this was the night at home Her father and her mother had a quarrel. Her mother asked her father to buy Elenor A new dress for commencement, and the father Was drinking and rebuffed her, so they quarreled. And rode with him to shame her father, coming After a long ride in the country home At ten o'clock or so." "Well, then I thought, If she will ride with Roy Green, I go back To hinting and to flirting eyes and guess The girl will ride with me, or something more. So I begin to circle round the girl, And walk with her, and take her riding too. She drops Roy Green for me--what does he care? He's had enough of her or never cared-- Which is it? there's the secret for a man As long as women interest him--who knows What the precedent fellow was to her? Roy Green takes to another and another. He died a year ago, as you'll remember, What were his secrets, agony? he seemed A man to me who lived and never thought." "So Elenor Murray went with me. Oh, well, She gave me kisses, let me hold her tight, We used to stop along the country ways And kiss as long as we had breath to kiss, And she would gasp and tremble."