TWENTY-ONE, two, three, four and five!

Just a quarter, sure’s I’m alive!

And that will buy the funniest doll,

Rubber and worsted, for Baby Moll.

That takes all of my ready cash,

And breaks my bank all into smash;

You little tin bank, you’re never full;

I can’t work much nights after school.

These days are so short the light don’t last,

And Christmas is coming so fast, so fast!

I won’t ask father to give me a cent;

He works too hard for bread and rent,

But mother must have a Christmas gift;

O dear! who’ll give a fellow a lift?

Dear mamma! her hair is pretty and brown,

And her smile so sweet, with never a frown.

I’ll get her something, I will! I will!

But how’ll I get it’s the question still.

I know!—I’ve got such a splendid plan;

’Tis good enough for a grown-up man.

I think my present will be just grand;

’Tis this: I’ll write, in my nicest hand,

A pledge that liquor I’ll never drink;

That I’ll never swear—and then I think

I’ll write that tobacco I’ll never use,

In tobacco pipes or tobacco chews.

I’ll get an envelope, clean and white,

And on it mamma’s name I’ll write.

And I’ll copy it out so nice and fair,

And sign my name at the bottom there:

“Archibald Spinner!” O what a name!

But Grandpa wears it, and ’tis no shame.

“Archibald!” Mamma will like it so.

“Archie!” she says when I’m good, I know,

But I think ’twill please her—I know it will!

Her dear brown eyes with tears will fill,

But behind the tears there will be for me

The happy twinkle I love to see.

So, “Archibald Spinner,” the road is long,

You must make your mind up good and strong

Before you put down in black and white,

The pledge that the angels in Heaven will write.

Yes, I’m going to do it! I’ve counted the cost:

There is all to gain, and nothing lost.

Now Christmas may come—come slow, or come fast—

I’m ready to meet it, ready at last;

Who in this town has a finer show

Than “Archibald II.,” I’d like to know!