poem written by Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896)
" It was an old, old, old, old lady
And a boy that was half-past three
and the way that they played together
was beautiful to see.
She couldn't go running or jumping
and the boy, no more could he.
for he was a thin little fellow
with a thin little twisted knee.
They sat in the yellow sunlight
out under the maple tree
And the game that they played I'll tell you
Just as it was told to me.
It was Hide-and-go- Seek they were playing
Though you've never have known it to be-
With an old, old, old, old lady
And a boy with a twisted knee.
The boy would bend his face down
On his one little sound right knee
And he'd guess where she was hiding
In guesses One, Two. Three!.
"You are in the china closet!"
He would cry and laugh with glee-
It wasn't the china closet
But he still had Two and Three.
"You are up in Papa's big bedroom,
In the chest with the queer old key!"
And she said, "You are warm and warmer
But you 're not quite right," said she.
"It can't be the little cupboard
where Mama's things used to be-
So it must be the clothes-press, Gran'ma!"
And he found her with his Three.
Then she covered her face with her fingers,
That were wrinkled and white and wee
And she guessed where the boy was hiding
With a One and a Two and a Three.
And they never had stirred from their places
Right under the Maple Tree
This old, old, old, old lady
And the boy with the lame little knee-
This dear, dear, dear old lady,
And the Boy who was half-past-three.
