Works

O here's a little rhyme for the Spring- or Summer-time -
An a-ho-winky-tooden-an-a-ho! -
Just a little bit o' tune you can twitter, May or June,
An a-ho-winky-tooden-an-a-ho!...

Uncle he says 'at 'way down in the sea
Ever'thing's ist like it used to be: -
He says they's mermaids, an' mermens, too,
An' little merchildern, like me an' you -
Little merboys, with tops an' balls,...

Now, Tudens, you sit on this knee - and 'scuse
It having no side-saddle on; - and, Jeems,
You sit on this - and don't you wobble so
And chug my old shins with your coppertoes; -...

Our dog Fred
Et the bread.



Our dog Dash
Et the hash.



Our dog Pete
Et the meat.



Our dog Davy
Et the gravy.


...

Miss Medairy Dory-Ann
Cast her line and caught a man,


But when he looked so pleased, alack!
She unhooked and plunked him back. -
"I never like to catch what I can,"
Said Miss Medairy Dory-Ann.

[Voice from behind high board-fence.]



"Where's the crowd that dares to go
Where I dare to lead? - you know!"



"Well, here's one!"
Shouts Ezry Dunn.


...

A wee little worm in a hickory-nut
Sang, happy as he could be, -



"O I live in the heart of the whole round world,
And it all belongs to me!"

A daring prince, of the realm Rangg Dhune,
Once went up in a big balloon

That caught and stuck on the horns of the moon,
And he hung up there till next day noon -...

I've thought a power on men and things,
As my uncle ust to say, -
And ef folks don't work as they pray, i jings!
W'y, they ain't no use to pray!
Ef you want somepin', and jes dead-set...

O were I not a clod, intent
On being just an earthly thing,
I'd be that rare embodiment
Of Heart and Spirit, Voice and Wing,
With pure, ecstatic, rapture-sent,
Divinely-tender twittering...

I.

An afternoon as ripe with heat
As might the golden pippin be
With mellowness if at my feet
It dropped now from the apple-tree
My hammock swings in lazily.


II.
...

Let us forget. What matters it that we
Once reigned o'er happy realms of long-ago,
And talked of love, and let our voices low,
And ruled for some brief sessions royally?...

"Uncle Jake's Place," St. Jo, Mo., 1874

"I was born in Indiany," says a stranger, lank and slim,
As us fellers in the restarunt was kindo' guyin' him,
And Uncle Jake was slidin' him another punkin pie...

Uncle Sidney, when he wuz here,
Maked me a squirtgun out o' some
Elder-bushes 'at growed out near
Where wuz the brickyard - 'way out clear
To where the toll-gate come!
...

Ho! the old Snow-Man
That Noey Bixler made!
He looked as fierce and sassy
As a soldier on parade! -
'Cause Noey, when he made him,
While we all wuz gone, you see,
He made him, jist a-purpose,...

Marcellus, won't you tell us -
Truly tell us, if you can, -
What will you be, Marcellus,
When you get to be a man?

You turn, with never answer
But to the band that plays. -...

Up and down old Brandywine,
In the days 'at's past and gone -
With a dad-burn hook-and line
And a saplin' pole - swawn!
I've had more fun, to the square
Inch, than ever ANYwhere!...

The old farm-home is Mother's yet and mine,
And filled it is with plenty and to spare,
But we are lonely here in life's decline,
Though fortune smiles around us everywhere:
We look across the gold...

The old farm-home is Mother's yet and mine,
And filled it is with plenty and to spare, -
But we are lonely here in life's decline,
Though fortune smiles around us everywhere:
We look across the gold...