SEEIN’ THINGS[11] I ain’t afraid uv snakes or toads, or bugs or worms or mice, An’ things ’at girls are skeered uv I think are awful nice! I’m pretty brave I guess; an’ yet I hate to go to bed, For, when I’m tucked up warm an’ snug an’ when my prayers are said, Mother tells me “Happy Dreams” an’ takes away the light, An’ leaves me lyin’ all alone an’ seein’ things at night! Sometimes they’re in the corner, sometimes they’re by the door, Sometimes they’re all a-standin’ in the middle uv the floor; Sometimes they are a-sittin’ down, sometimes they’re walkin’ round So softly and so creepy-like they never make a sound! Sometimes they are as black as ink, an’ other times they’re white— But color ain’t no difference when you see things at night! Once, when I licked a feller ’at had just moved on our street, An’ father sent me up to bed without a bite to eat, I woke up in the dark an’ saw things standin’ in a row, A-lookin’ at me cross-eyed an’ p’intin’ at me—_so!_ Oh, my! I wuz so skeered ’at time I never slep’ a mite— It’s almost alluz when I’m bad I see things at night! Lucky thing I ain’t a girl or I’d be skeered to death! Bein’ I’m a boy, I duck my head an’ hold my breath. An’ I am, oh _so_ sorry I’m a naughty boy, an’ then I promise to be better an’ I say my prayers again! Gran’ma tells me that’s the only way to make it right When a feller has been wicked an’ sees things at night! An’ so when other naughty boys would coax me into sin, I try to skwush the Tempter’s voice ’at urges me within; An’ when they’s pie for supper, or cakes ’at’s big an’ nice, I want to—but I do not pass my plate f’r them things twice! No, ruther let Starvation wipe me slowly out o’ sight Than I should keep a-livin’ on an’ seein’ things at night! _Edwin Markham_ Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon, April 23, 1852, the youngest son of pioneer parents. His father died before he had reached his fifth year and in 1857 he was taken by his mother to a wild valley in the Suisun Hills in central California. Here he grew to young manhood; farming, broncho-riding, laboring on a cattle ranch, educating himself in the primitive country schools and supplementing his studies with whatever books he could procure. At eighteen he determined to be a teacher and entered the State Normal School at San Jose. After some years he became superintendent and principal of various schools in that locality.