Come on, little people, from cot and from hall-- This heart it hath welcome and room for you all! It will sing you its songs and warm you with love, As your dear little arms with my arms intertwine; It will rock you away to the dreamland above-- Oh, a jolly old heart is this old heart of mine, And jollier still is it bound to become When you blow that big trumpet and beat that red drum. So come; though I see not _his_ dear little face And hear not _his_ voice in this jubilant place, I know he were happy to bid me enshrine His memory deep in my heart with your play-- Ah me! but a love that is sweeter than mine Holdeth my boy in its keeping to-day! And my heart it is lonely--so, little folk, come, March in and make merry with trumpet and drum! THE DELECTABLE BALLAD OF THE WALLER LOT. Up yonder in Buena Park There is a famous spot, In legend and in history Yelept the Waller Lot. There children play in daytime And lovers stroll by dark, For 'tis the goodliest trysting-place In all Buena Park. Once on a time that beauteous maid, Sweet little Sissy Knott, Took out her pretty doll to walk Within the Waller Lot. While thus she fared, from Ravenswood Came Injuns o'er the plain, And seized upon that beauteous maid And rent her doll in twain. Oh, 'twas a piteous thing to hear Her lamentations wild; She tore her golden curls and cried: "My child! My child! My child!" Alas, what cared those Injun chiefs How bitterly wailed she? They never had been mothers, And they could not hope to be! "Have done with tears," they rudely quoth, And then they bound her hands; For they proposed to take her off To distant border lands. [Illustration: LUCY ALEXANDER KNOTT.--"HEROINE OF THE 'BALLAD OF THE WALLER LOT'" (NOTE BY EUGENE FIELD ON PHOTOGRAPH). From a photograph by Max Platz, Chicago.] But, joy! from Mr. Eddy's barn Doth Willie Clow behold The sight that makes his hair rise up And all his blood run cold. He put his fingers in his mouth And whistled long and clear, And presently a goodly horde Of cowboys did appear. Cried Willie Clow: "My comrades bold, Haste to the Waller Lot, And rescue from that Injun band Our charming Sissy Knott! "Spare neither Injun buck nor squaw, But smite them hide and hair! Spare neither sex nor age nor size, And no condition spare!" Then sped that cowboy band away, Full of revengeful wrath, And Kendall Evans rode ahead Upon a hickory lath. And next came gallant Dady Field And Willie's brother Kent, The Eddy boys and Robbie James, On murderous purpose bent. For they were much beholden to That maid--in sooth, the lot Were very, very much in love With charming Sissy Knott. [Illustration: JAMES BRECKINRIDGE WALLER, JR.--"A 'WALLER LOT' COWBOY OF RARE PROMISE" (NOTE BY EUGENE FIELD ON PHOTOGRAPH). From a photograph by Gehrig & Windeatt, Chicago.]