XVI. “It’s an owercome sooth for age an’ youth.” Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1913. A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods

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	5
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;	10
But the nearest friends are the auldest friends
And the grave’s the place to seek them.