_A Change Of Ambition_

HORATIUS at the bridge, and he Who fought at old Thermopylæ;

Great Samson and his potent bone By which the Philistines were slone;

Small David with his wondrous aim That did for him of giant frame;

J. Cæsar in his Gallic scraps That made him lord of other chaps;

Sweet William, called the Conqueror, Who made the Briton sick of war;

King Hal the Fifth, who nobly fought And thrashed the foe at Agincourt;

Old Bonaparte, and Washington, And Frederick, and Wellington,

Decatur, Nelson, Fighting Joe, And Farragut, and Grant, and, oh,

A thousand other heroes I Have wished I were in days gone by--

Can take their laurels from my door, For I don't want 'em any more.

The truth will out; it can't be hid; The doughty deed that Dewey did,

In that far distant Spanish sea, Is really good enough for me.

The grammar's bad, but, O my son, I wish I'd did what Dewey done!