Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

XVI. “It’s an owercome sooth for age an’ youth”

IT’S an owercome sooth for age an’ youth

And it brooks wi’ nae denial,

That the dearest friends are the auldest friends

And the young are just on trial.

There’s a rival bauld wi’ young an’ auld

And it’s him that has bereft me;

For the surest friends are the auldest friends

And the maist o’ mines hae left me.

There are kind hearts still, for friends to fill

And fools to take and break them;

But the nearest friends are the auldest friends

And the grave’s the place to seek them.