Transcribed from the 1919 Gay and Hancock edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] HELLO, BOYS! BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX [Picture: Decorative graphic] LONDON GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD. 1919 _All rights reserved_ * * * * * _N.B._—The only volumes of my Poems issues with my approval in the British Empire are published by Messrs. Gay & Hancock. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. FORWARD THE greater part of these verses dealing with the war were written in France during my recent seven months’ sojourn there, and for the purpose of using in entertainments given in camps and hospitals to thousands of American soldiers. They were the result of coming into close contact with the soldiers’ mind and heart, and were intentionally expressed in the simplest manner, without any consideration of methods approved by modern critics. The fact that I have been asked to autograph scores of copies of many of these verses (and one of them to the extent of 350 copies) is more gratifying to me than would be the highest encomiums of the purely literary critic. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. London, _October_ 1918. CONTENTS