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Added For The Alumni Meeting, June 29,
by Oliver Wendell HolmesSo the gray Boatswain of 'Twenty-nine
Piped to "The Boys" as they crossed the line;
Round the cabin sat thirty guests,
Babes of the nurse with a thousand breasts.
There were the judges, grave and grand,
Flanked by the priests on either hand;
There was the lord of wealth untold,
And the dear good fellow in broadcloth old.
Thirty men, from twenty towns,
Sires and grandsires with silvered crowns, -
Thirty school-boys all in a row, -
Bens and Georges and Bill and Joe.
In thirty goblets the wine was poured,
But threescore gathered around the board, -
For lo! at the side of every chair
A shadow hovered - we all were there!