Classic Poem

Tom and Dick and Harry
Have gone away from home;
Have left the store and stables to fight in foreign lands;
For when the heart's clean the feet will roam
At Truth's commands;
And now the door-latch and the arm-chair
Will feel another's hands,
And the clock tick — tick — tick
To an empty house and a still stair,
And one who understands.

" Good-bye, Tom, till you come again. "
That's what we all say,
For we know at heart that home is home —
Come what may;
And they'll all return somehow, some day,
To the home-chair and the home-bed
And the old home-way —
To the clock's tick — tick — tick
In the silent room and the dark hall,
Where the dreams stray.

" Don't fear for Tom and Dick and Me. "
Why should we when they'll come all three —
As sure as love lives and home-fires flare!
For home is here and there and everywhere;
And when the sun is set and the day's done
They needs must drop in one by one,
To the Home-Peace and the Home-Fun,
And the clock's tick — tick — tick
For Victory won.
Ah! we know, though we can't say why,
They're safer now than they were before,
For only the phantoms of evil die
And Happiness knocks on Duty's door,
And Tom and Dick and Harry will find —
After the War —
The dear Home and the dear Hands
And the Love that will endure,
And an end to heart-aching and heart-breaking
For evermore!