Little lost pup

He was lost!-not a shade of doubt of that;
For he never barked at a slinking cat,
But stood in the square where the wind blew raw
With a drooping ear and a trembling paw
 And a mournful look in his pleading eye
And a plaintive sniff at the passer-by
That begged as plain as a tongue could sue,
 "0 Mister! please may I follow you?"
A lorn wee waif of a tawny brown
Adrift in the roar of a heedless town.
 Oh, the saddest of sights in a world of sin
 Is a little lost pup with his tail tucked in!
Now he shares my board and he owns my bed,
 And he fairly shouts when he hears my tread;
 Then, if things go wrong, as they sometimes do,
 And the world is cold and I'm feeling blue,
 He asserts his right to assuage my woes
With a warm, red tongue and a nice, cold nose
 And a silky head on my arm or knee
And a paw as soft as a paw can be.
When we rove the woods for a league about
 He's as full of pranks as a school let out;
For he romps and frisks like a three months' colt,
And he runs me down like a thunderbolt.
 Oh, the blithest of sights in the world so fair
 Is a gay little pup with his tail in the air!

Arthur Guiterman