Pipes OPan at Zekesbury

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Title: Pipes O'Pan at Zekesbury
Author: James Whitcomb Riley
Release Date: October 31, 2004 [EBook #13908]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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PIPES O' PAN AT ZEKESBURY
BY
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
INDIANAPOLIS
BOWEN-MERRILL CO., PUBLISHERS
1895
TO MY BROTHER JOHN A. RILEY WITH MANY MEMORIES OF THE OLD HOME
CONTENTS
PAGE
AT ZEKESBURY 13
DOWN AROUND THE RIVER POEMS
DOWN AROUND THE RIVER 37
KNEELING WITH HERRICK 39
ROMANCIN' 40
HAS SHE FORGOTTEN 43
A' OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG 45
THE LOST PATH 47
THE LITTLE TINY KICKSHAW 48
HIS MOTHER 49
KISSING THE ROD 50
HOW IT HAPPENED 51
BABYHOOD 53
THE DAYS GONE BY 54
MRS. MILLER 57
RHYMES OF RAINY DAYS
THE TREE-TOAD 79
A WORN-OUT PENCIL 80
THE STEPMOTHER 82
THE RAIN 83
THE LEGEND GLORIFIED 84
WHUR MOTHER IS 85
OLD MAN'S NURSERY RHYME 86
THREE DEAD FRIENDS 88
IN BOHEMIA 91
IN THE DARK 93
WET-WEATHER TALK 94
WHERE SHALL WE LAND 96
AN OLD SETTLER'S STORY 101
SWEET-KNOT AND GALAMUS
AN OLD SWEETHEART 159
MARTHY ELLEN 161
MOON-DROWNED 163
LONG AFORE HE KNOWED 164
DEAR HANDS 166
THIS MAN JONES 167
TO MY GOOD MASTER 169
WHEN THE GREEN GITS BACK 170
AT BROAD RIPPLE 171
WHEN OLD JACK DIED 172
DOC SIFERS 174
AT NOON--AND MIDNIGHT 177
A WILD IRISHMAN 181
RAGWEED AND FENNEL
WHEN MY DREAMS COME TRUE 205
A DOS'T O' BLUES 206
THE BAT 208
THE WAY IT WUZ 209
THE DRUM 212
TOM JOHNSON'S QUIT 214
LULLABY 216
IN THE SOUTH 217
THE OLD HOME BY THE MILL 219
A LEAVE-TAKING 221
WAIT FOR THE MORNING 222
WHEN JUNE IS HERE 223
THE GILDED ROLL 227
PIPES O' PAN AT ZEKESBURY
The pipes of Pan! Not idler now are they?Than when their cunning fashioner first blew?The pith of music from them: Yet for you?And me their notes are blown in many a way?Lost in our murmurings for that old day?That fared so well, without us.--Waken to?The pipings here at hand:--The clear halloo?Of truant-voices, and the roundelay?The waters warble in the solitude?Of blooming thickets, where the robin's breast?Sends up such ecstacy o'er dale and dell,?Each tree top answers, till in all the wood?There lingers not one squirrel in his nest?Whetting his hunger on an empty shell.
AT ZEKESBURY.
The little town, as I recall it, was of just enough dignity and dearth of the same to be an ordinary county seat in Indiana--"The Grand Old Hoosier State," as it was used to being howlingly referred to by the forensic stump orator from the old stand in the courthouse yard--a political campaign being the wildest delight that Zekesbury might ever hope to call its own.
Through years the fitful happenings of the town and its vicinity went on the same--the same! Annually about one circus ventured in, and vanished, and was gone, even as a passing trumpet-blast; the usual rainy-season swelled the "Crick," the driftage choking at "the covered bridge," and backing water till the old road looked amphibious; and crowds of curious townsfolk straggled down to look upon the watery wonder, and lean awe-struck above it, and spit in it, and turn mutely home again.
The usual formula of incidents peculiar to an uneventful town and its vicinity: The countryman from "Jessup's Crossing," with the cornstalk coffin-measure, loped into town, his steaming little?gray-and-red-flecked "roadster" gurgitating, as it were, with that mysterious utterance that ever has commanded and ever must evoke the wonder and bewilderment of every boy. The small-pox rumor became prevalent betimes, and the subtle aroma of the assafoetida-bag permeated the graded schools "from turret to foundation-stone;" the still recurring expos�� of the poor-house management; the farm-hand, with the scythe across his shoulder, struck dead by lightning; the long-drawn quarrel between the rival editors culminating in one of them assaulting the other with a "sidestick," and the other kicking the one down stairs and thenceward ad libitum; the tramp, suppositiously stealing a ride, found dead on the railroad; the grand jury returning a sensational indictment against a bar-tender _non est_; the Temperance outbreak; the "Revival;" the Church Festival; and the "Free Lectures on Phrenology, and Marvels of Mesmerism," at the town hall. It was during the time of the last-mentioned sensation, and directly through this scientific investigation, that I came upon two of the town's most remarkable characters. And however meager my outline of them may prove, my material for the sketch is most accurate in every detail, and no deviation from the cold facts of the case shall influence any line of my report.
For some years prior to this odd experience I had been connected with a daily paper at the state capitol; and latterly a prolonged session of the legislature, where I specially reported, having told threateningly upon my health, I