Riley Farm-Rhymes | Page 6

hawk is, well as you!--?You jes' bet yer life she do!--?Eyes a-glitterin' like glass,?Waitin' till he makes a pass!
V
Pee-wees' singin', to express?My opinion, 's second class,?Yit you'll hear 'em more er less;
Sapsucks gittin' down to biz,?Weedin' out the lonesomeness;?Mr. Bluejay, full o' sass,?In them base-ball clothes o' his,?Sportin' round the orchard jes'?Like he owned the premises!
Sun out in the fields kin sizz,?But flat on yer back, I guess,
In the shade's where glory is!?That's jes' what I'd like to do?Stiddy fer a year er two!
VI
Plague! ef they ain't somepin' in?Work 'at kindo' goes ag'in'?My convictions!--'long about?Here in June especially!--?Under some old apple-tree,?Jes' a-restin' through and through?I could git along without?Nothin' else at all to do?Only jes' a-wishin' you?Wuz a-gittin' there like me,?And June was eternity!
VII
Lay out there and try to see?Jes' how lazy you kin be!--
Tumble round and souse yer head?In the clover-bloom, er pull
Yer straw hat acrost yer eyes?And peek through it at the skies,?Thinkin' of old chums 'at's dead,
Maybe, smilin' back at you?In betwixt the beautiful
Clouds o' gold and white and blue.?Month a man kin railly love?June, you know, I'm talkin' of!
VIII
March ain't never nothin' new!?Aprile's altogether too?Brash fer me! and May--I jes'?'Bominate its promises,?Little hints o' sunshine and?Green around the timber-land--?A few blossoms, and a few?Chip-birds, and a sprout er two,--?Drap asleep, and it turns in?'Fore daylight and SNOWS ag'in!--?But when JUNE comes--Clear my th'oat?With wild honey!--Rench my hair?In the dew! and hold my coat!
Whoop out loud! and th'ow my hat!--?June wants me, and I'm to spare!?Spread them shadders anywhere,?I'll git down and waller there,?And obleeged to you at that!
SEPTEMBER DARK
I
The air falls chill;?The whippoorwill?Pipes lonesomely behind the hill:?The dusk grows dense,?The silence tense;?And lo, the katydids commence.
II
Through shadowy rifts?Of woodland, lifts?The low, slow moon, and upward drifts,?While left and right?The fireflies' light?Swirls eddying in the skirts of Night.
III
O Cloudland, gray?And level, lay?Thy mists across the face of Day!?At foot and head,?Above the dead,?O Dews, weep on uncomforted!
THE CLOVER
Some sings of the lily, and daisy, and rose,
And the pansies and pinks that the Summertime
throws?In the green grassy lap of the medder that lays?Blinkin' up at the skyes through the sunshiney days;?But what is the lily and all of the rest?Of the flowers, to a man with a hart in his brest?That was dipped brimmin' full of the honey and dew?Of the sweet clover-blossoms his babyhood knew??I never set eyes on a clover-field now,?Er fool round a stable, er climb in the mow,?But my childhood comes back jest as clear and as plane?As the smell of the clover I'm sniffin' again;?And I wunder away in a bare-footed dream,?Whare I tangle my toes in the blossoms that gleam?With the dew of the dawn of the morning of love?Ere it wept ore the graves that I'm weepin' above.
And so I love clover--it seems like a part?Of the sacerdest sorrows and joys of my hart;?And wharever it blossoms, oh, thare let me bow?And thank the good God as I'm thankin' Him now;?And I pray to Him still fer the stren'th when I die,?To go out in the clover and tell it good-bye,?And lovin'ly nestle my face in its bloom?While my soul slips away on a breth of purfume
OLD OCTOBER
Old October's purt' nigh gone,?And the frosts is comin' on?Little HEAVIER every day--?Like our hearts is thataway!?Leaves is changin' overhead?Back from green to gray and red,?Brown and yeller, with their stems?Loosenin' on the oaks and e'ms;?And the balance of the trees?Gittin' balder every breeze--?Like the heads we're scratchin' on!?Old October's purt' nigh gone.
I love Old October so,?I can't bear to see her go--?Seems to me like losin' some?Old-home relative er chum--?'Pears like sorto' settin' by?Some old friend 'at sigh by sigh?Was a-passin' out o' sight?Into everlastin' night!?Hickernuts a feller hears?Rattlin' down is more like tears?Drappin' on the leaves below--?I love Old October so!
Can't tell what it is about?Old October knocks me out!--?I sleep well enough at night--?And the blamedest appetite?Ever mortal man possessed,--?Last thing et, it tastes the best!--?Warnuts, butternuts, pawpaws,?'Iles and limbers up my jaws?Fer raal service, sich as new?Pork, spareribs, and sausage, too.--?Yit, fer all, they's somepin' 'bout?Old October knocks me out!
OLD-FASHIONED ROSES
They ain't no style about 'em,?And they're sorto' pale and faded,?Yit the doorway here, without 'em,?Would be lonesomer, and shaded?With a good 'eal blacker shadder?Than the morning-glories makes,?And the sunshine would look sadder?Fer their good old-fashion' sakes,
I like 'em 'cause they kindo'--?Sorto' MAKE a feller like 'em!?And I tell you, when I find a?Bunch out whur the sun kin strike 'em,?It allus sets me thinkin'?O' the ones 'at used to grow?And peek in thro' the chinkin'?O' the cabin, don't you know!
And then I think o' mother,?And how she ust to love 'em--?When they wuzn't any other,?'Less she found 'em up above 'em!?And her eyes, afore she shut 'em,?Whispered with a smile and said?We must pick a bunch and putt 'em?In