<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(84, 130, 53); font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 24pt; background-color: white; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Childhood</span><div dir="ltr"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white;">by David Bates</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white;">Childhood, sweet and sunny childhood, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72);"><br><span style="background-color: white;">With its careless, thoughtless air, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Like the verdant, tangled wildwood, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Wants the training hand of care. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">See it springing all around us -- </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Glad to know, and quick to learn; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Asking questions that confound us; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Teaching lessons in its turn. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Who loves not its joyous revel, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Leaping lightly on the lawn, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Up the knoll, along the level, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Free and graceful as a fawn? </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Let it revel; it is nature </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Giving to the little dears </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Strength of limb, and healthful features, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">For the toil of coming years. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">He who checks a child with terror, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Stops its play, and stills its song, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Not alone commits an error, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">But a great and moral wrong. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Give it play, and never fear it -- </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Active life is no defect; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Never, never break its spirit -- </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Curb it only to direct. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Would you dam the flowing river, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Thinking it would cease to flow? </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Onward it must go forever -- </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Better teach it where to go. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Childhood is a fountain welling, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Trace its channel in the sand, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">And its currents, spreading, swelling, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Will revive the withered land. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Childhood is the vernal season; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Trim and train the tender shoot; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Love is to the coming reason, </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">As the blossom to the fruit. </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Tender twigs are bent and folded -- </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Art to nature beauty lends; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Childhood easily is moulded; </span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Manhood breaks, but seldom bends.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></div></body></html>