We’ve been married ten years to-day, dear;
Ah, me, how the time has flown
Since I whispered in church one morning,
“I will,” in an undertone.
You’ve changed a little, my darling;
Your figure is not so slim
As it was when you won the medal
That night at the German Gym.
You’re stouter, and threads of silver
Now shine in the curly locks
That were black as the wing of raven
The night that I saw you box.
I can see you now with the gloves on,
In the pride of your strength and limb,
As you fought your man to his corner,
That night at the German Gym.
I noticed your socks of scarlet
And your jersey of dainty cream,
And I said to myself, “How handsome!”
And I fell in a blissful dream.
But, O! when your nose was bleeding
My eyes with the tears grew dim,
And I hated the man who punched you
That night at the German Gym.
And when, as the fight grew fiercer,
He gave you a bad black eye,
And the hard-hearted people cheered him,
I felt I should have to cry;
But, pulling yourself together,
You hammered away at him,
Till he reeled like a drunken gaby
That night at the German Gym.
And, O, when the nice kind judges
Declared you had won the fight,
And the people rose up and shouted,
I trembled with wild delight.
I felt so proud of my lover,
That my eyes began to swim;
I never knew how I loved you
Till that night at the German Gym.
And now we’ve been ten years married,
And Johnny our boy is eight;
His daddy’s too stout for boxing,
And has doubled his fighting weight.
But I hope that in years to come, dear—
It is only a mother’s whim—
Our Johnny will put the gloves on,
And box at the German Gym.
I should like to sit there with you, dear,
The night that our boy competes,
And see him upholding bravely
The fame of his father’s feats.
It will carry us back in fancy
To the past that no time can dim,
When his dad was the champion boxer
Of the dear old German Gym.