The Kid has gone to the Colors
W.M. Herschell
1873 to 1943
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The Kid has gone to the Colors
And we don't know what to say;
The Kid we have loved cuddled
Stepped out for the Flag to-day.
We thought a child, a baby
With never a care at all,
But his country called him man-size
And the Kid heard the call.
He paused to watch the recruiting,
Where, fired by the fife and drum,
He bowed head to Old Glory
And thought that it whispered: "Come!"
The Kid, not being a slacker,
Stood forth patriot-joy
To add his name to the roster—
And God, we're proud of the boy!
The Kid has to the Colors;
It seems but a little while
he drilled a schoolboy army
In a truly martial style,
But now he's a man, a soldier,
And we him a listening ear,
For his heart is a all loyal,
Unscourged by the curse of fear.
dad, when he told him, shuddered,
His mother—God bless her!—cried;
Yet, blest with a mother-nature,
She wept with mother-pride,
But he whose old shoulders straightened
Was Granddad—for ran
To years when he, too, a youngster,
Was by the Flag to a man!