Project Gutenberg's An Old Sweetheart of Mine, by James Whitcomb Riley

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Title: An Old Sweetheart of Mine

Author: James Whitcomb Riley

Illustrator: Howard Chandler Christy
Virginia Keep

Release Date: January 16, 2008 [EBook #24331]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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An Old Sweetheart of Mine

James Whitcomb Riley

Drawings by
Howard Chandler Christy

Decorations by
Virginia Keep

The Bobbs-Merrill Company
Publishers Indianapolis

Copyright, 1888-1899-1902
James Whitcomb Riley

Copyright, 1902
The Bowen-Merrill Company

An Old Sweetheart of Mine

INSCRIBED

To GEORGE C. HITT

The beginning of whose steadfast friendship was marked by the first
publication of these verses which now, expanded by writer, honored by
publisher and masterfully graced by artist, seem to be a worthier symbol
of the author's grateful and affectionate regard for his earliest
friend

List of Illustrations

I Frontispiece--An Old Sweetheart of Mine.

II A fair, illusive vision that would vanish into air

III The _then_ of changeless sunny days--The _now_ of shower and shine

IV The old bookshelves and prints along the wall

V I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine

VI Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish with the smoke

VII When my truant fancies wander with that old sweetheart of mine

VIII The voices of my children and the mother as she sings

IX For I find an extra flavor in Memory's mellow wine

X O childhood days enchanted! O the magic of the spring

XI To--smile, behind my lesson, at that old sweetheart of mine

XII A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy grace

XIII When first I kissed her, and she answered the caress

XIV I slipped the apple in it--and the teacher didn't know

XV She gave me her _photograph_, and printed "Ever Thine"

XVI And again I feel the pressure of her slender little hand

XVII W