Classic Poem

The little square-toes wouldn't go back!
They preferred the casual forest living,
The speeches and games, the easy giving,
The winter starvation, the summer ease,
The dangers, the hunts, the sheltering trees,
The still swift ways of savage and beast,
The broad strong rivers, the brown-robed priest,
Notre Dame des Bois — they preferred all these
To their parents' harsh austerities.
No ransom was ever enough to bring
Them back to their sober reasoning.
No bribes could ever net them again
In their round of duties to God and men.
Their savage captors had set them free
From their freedom's old captivity.
Shiftless, serene, agile and wild
Grew many a stiff New England child
And commissions might sit, and mothers might yearn
But the little square-toes would not return!