Riley Farm-Rhymes | Page 5

me;--"and somehow I thought of
John
All the time they was a-jellin'--fer you know they allus
was
His favorITE--he likes 'em so!" Says I "Well, s'pose
he does?"
"Oh, nothin' much!" says Mother, with a quiet sort o'
smile--
"This gentleman behind my cheer may tell you after
while!"
And as I turnt and looked around, some one riz up and
leant
And putt his arms round Mother's neck, and laughed in
low content.
"It's ME," he says--"your fool-boy John, come back to
shake your hand;
Set down with you, and talk with you, and make
you understand

How dearer yit than all the world is this old home that
we
Will spend Thanksgivin' in fer life--jest Mother, you
and me!"
Nobody on the old farm here but Mother, me and John,
Except, of
course, the extry he'p when harvest-time
comes on;
And then, I want to say to you, we NEED sich he'p about,

As you'd admit, ef you could see the way the crops turn
out!
A CANARY AT THE FARM
Folks has be'n to town, and Sahry
Fetched 'er home a pet canary,--

And of all the blame', contrary,
Aggervatin' things alive!
I love music--that's I love it
When it's
free--and plenty of it;--
But I kindo' git above it,
At a dollar-eighty-five!
Reason's plain as I'm a--sayin',--
Jes' the idy, now, o' layin'
Out yer
money, and a-payin'
Fer a wilder-cage and bird,
When the medder-larks is wingin'

Round you, and the woods is ringin'
With the beautifullest singin'
That a mortal ever heard!
Sahry's sot, tho'.--So I tell her
He's a purty little feller,
With his
wings o' creamy-yeller,
And his eyes keen as a cat;
And the twitter o' the critter
Tears to
absolutely glitter!
Guess I'll haf to go and git her

A high-priceter cage 'n that!
WHERE THE CHILDREN USED TO PLAY
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
Of the harvests, as of old--
The corn, the
fragrant clover, and the hay
But most we turn our gaze,
As with eyes of other days,
To the
orchard where the children used to play.
O from our life's full measure
And rich hoard of worldly treasure
We often turn our weary eyes away,
And hand in hand we wander

Down the old path winding yonder
To the orchard where the children used to play
Our sloping pasture-lands are filled with herds;
The barn and granary-bins are bulging o'er:
The grove's a paradise of
singing birdsThe
woodland brook leaps laughing by the door
Yet lonely, lonely still,
Let us prosper as we will,
Our old hearts
seem so empty everyway--
We can only through a mist
See the faces we have kissed
In the
orchard where the children used to play.
O from our life's full measure
And rich hoard of worldly treasure

We often turn our weary eyes away,
And hand in hand we wander

Down the old path winding yonder
To the orchard where the children used to play.
GRIGGSBY'S STATION
Pap's got his pattent-right, and rich as all creation;
But where's the
peace and comfort that we all had
before?
Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station--
Back where
we ust to be so happy and so pore!
The likes of us a-livin' here! It's jest a mortal pity
To see us in this
great big house, with cyarpets on the
stairs,
And the pump right in the kitchen! And the city! city!
city!--
And nothin' but the city all around us ever'wheres!
Climb clean above the roof and look from the steeple,
And never see a robin, nor a beech or ellum tree!
And right here in
ear-shot of at least a thousan' people,
And none that neighbors with us or we want to go and
see!
Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station--
Back where the latch-string's a-hangin' from the door,
And ever'
neighbor round the place is dear as a relation--
Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore!
I want to see the Wiggenses, the whole kit-and-bilin',

A-drivin' up from Shallor Ford to stay the Sunday
through;
And I want to see 'em hitchin' at their son-in-law's and
pilin'
Out there at 'Lizy Ellen's like they ust to do!
I want to see the piece-quilts the Jones girls is makin';
And I want to pester Laury 'bout their freckled hired
hand,
And joke her 'bout the widower she come purt' nigh
a-takin',
Till her Pap got his pension 'lowed in time to save his
land.
Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station--
Back where they's nothin' aggervatin' any more,
Shet away safe in the
woods around the old location--
Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore!
I want to see Marindy and he'p her with her sewin',
And hear her talk so lovin' of her man that's dead and
gone,
And stand up with Emanuel to show me how he's
growin',
And smile as I have saw her 'fore she