Wake me early from my slumbers, henceforth I would early rise,
Health and wealth are common virtues--dawn will brand me both, and wise.
Bunkie, I'll be boss tomorrow, uniformed in blue and white,
Knew I'd get it, if the captain only did what's square and right.
But I will not chastise the comrades who may doubt my word is law,
I'll be easy with them, bunkie, patient, 'tho they feel no awe.
Bunkie, I'm growing sleepy; wake me when the morning breaks;
For upon the track of merit, I will land the non-com. stakes.
Let me hear the joyful clamor when I wake from pleasant dreams
That the fellows rise when greeting a noncom., who is what he seems.
Wake me early, bunkie, comrade, tell the fellows who I am,
Not forgetting all the favors I will do you when I can.
Tell them that I wouldn't have it, if it sacrificed their love,
Tell them that I'm the same as ever, though they think me far above.
Bunkie, I have dreamed so often of the buff that I shall wear,
That I feel the honor greater than a man like me can bear.
Long I've waited; long I've cherished thoughts of how I'd look and feel
When the captain said: Howard, here's a stripe to aid your zeal.
Then I'd be a non-com., bunkies, then I'd write to dad and say,
Modest-like: "A Corporal's greetings to his folks so far away!"
A YOUNG ROOKIE'S LAMENT
As I sit in the gleam of the camp fire,
'Neath the Oriental skies,
In fancy I picture the homeland shore
And a town I highly prize;
It's Gardner, dear old Gardner,
A town so dear to me,
But I'm many miles away
Across an endless sea.
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