Full admiration; and "Dick Turpin," too.
And, painful as the fact is to convey,
In certain lurid tales of their own day,
These boys found thieving heroes and outlaws
They hailed with equal fervor of applause:
"The League of the Miami"--why, the name
Alone was fascinating--is the same,
In memory, this venerable hour
Of moral wisdom shorn of all its power,
As it unblushingly reverts to when
The old barn was "the Cave," and hears again
The signal blown, outside the buggy-shed--
The drowsy guard within uplifts his head,
And "'_Who goes there?_'" is called, in bated breath--
The challenge answered in a hush of death,--
"Sh!--'_Barney Gray!_'" And then "'_What do you seek?_'"
"'_Stables of The League!_'" the voice comes spent and weak,
For, ha! the _Law_ is on the "Chieftain's" trail--
Tracked to his very lair!--Well, what avail?
The "secret entrance" opens--closes.--So
The "Robber-Captain" thus outwits his foe;
And, safe once more within his "cavern-halls,"
He shakes his clenched fist at the warped plank-walls
And mutters his defiance through the cracks
At the balked Enemy's retreating backs
As the loud horde flees pell-mell down the lane,
And--_Almon Keefer_ is himself again!

Excepting few, they were not books indeed
Of deep import that Almon chose to read;--