Explore "The Old-Home Folks" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Such was the Child-World of the long-ago -- / The little world these children used to know: -- / Johnty, the oldest, and the best, perhaps, / Of the five happy little Hoosier chaps / Inhabiting this wee world all their own. -- / Johnty, the leader, with his native tone / Of grave command -- a general on parade / Whose each punctilious order was obeyed / By his proud followers.
But Johnty yet -- / After all serious duties -- could forget / The gravity of life to the extent, / At times, of kindling much astonishment / About him: With a quick, observant eye, / And mind and memory, he could supply / The tamest incident with liveliest mirth; / And at the most unlooked-for times on earth / Was wont to break into some travesty / On those around him -- feats of mimicry / Of this one's trick of gesture -- that one's walk -- / Or this one's laugh -- or that one's funny talk, -- / The way "the watermelon-man" would try / His humor on town-folks that wouldn't buy; -- / How he drove into town at morning -- then / At dusk (alas! ) how he drove out again.