Page:Doreen (C. J. Dennis, 1917).djvu/9



HE little gipsy vi'lits, they wus peepin' thro' the green As she come walkin' in the grass, me little wife, Doreen. The sun shone on the sassafras, where thrushes sung a bar. —The 'ope an' worry uv our lives wus yellin' fer 'is Mar.— I watched 'er comin' down the green; the sun wus on 'er 'air— Jist the woman that I marri'd, when me luck wus 'eadin' fair.

I seen 'er walkin' in the sun that lit our little farm. She 'ad three clothes-pegs in 'er mouth, an' washin' on 'er arm— Three clothes-pegs, fer I counted 'em, an' watched 'er as she come. "The stove-wood's low," she mumbles, "an' young Bill 'as cut 'is thumb," Now, it weren't no giddy love-speech, but it seemed to take me straight Back to the time I kissed 'er first beside 'er mother's gate.