And, like many others,

Each thought he could do

Anything he wanted to.

These two little boys quarreled one day--

Just what about is hard to say

For witnesses on this point don't agree;

So why let it bother you and me?

My! What a temper Johnnie had--

And Yank's was nearly as bad.

Johnnie was all fire and tow,

Touch a match and off he'd go.

Yank's was slower

But he didn't need any more.

Said Johnnie, "I'll not live with you any more

And you shan't slide down my cellar door.

I'll start a ranch of my own,

I'll let you know that I'm grown.

"Now see here," said Yank, "this won't do,

And it's very, very naughty in you

To raise such a fuss and kick up a muss like this.

It isn't according to the will,

So now please do keep still."

But Johnnie's dander had riz.

He said part of the land was his;

He'd show Yank a thing or two;

He'd show him what he'd do.

Yes he would!

"But I won't let you," said Yank.

"Just help yourself if you can.

I'll let you know I'm a man.

With one hand tied behind

I can lick you, you'll find."

"O pshaw," said Yank,

"You're a regular crank.

Do you really think you could fight?

It would only whet my breakfast appetite

To give you a thrashing you'd never forget."

And yet- -

Nothing else would do so they got at it,

And they fit and they fit and they fit and they fit,

And, if they hadn't quit,

They'd have been at it yet.

They spent four long years

Pulling each other's ears.

At the game of lickin' and being licked,

Johnnie found both hands were needed.

And then when they got through the fight,

Yank's breakfast appetite

Was about worn out.

All this happened over forty years ago.

And now, do you know

That the Blue and the Gray

Fight those battles over today

In an entirely different way?

And may it never again,

In our history as men,

Be true that the Gray and the Blue

Shall seek each others; hurt.

Just see them tonight.

Do they look like they'd fight each other?

Oh, no, for now Johnnie and Yank are brothers.