Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/94



'M going to write a letter to our oldest boy who went

Out West last spring to practise law and run for president;

I'll tell him all the gossip I guess he'd like to hear,

For he hasn't seen the home-folks for going on a year!

Most generally it's Marthy does the writing, but as she

Is suffering with a felon, why, the job devolves on me—

So, when the supper things are done and put away to-night,

I'll draw my boots and shed my coat and settle down to write.

I'll tell him crops are looking up, with prospects big for corn,

That, fooling with the barnyard gate, the off-ox hurt his horn;

That the Templar lodge is doing well—Tim Bennett joined last week

When the prohibition candidate for Congress came to speak;

That the old gray woodchuck's living still down in the pasture-lot,

A-wondering what's become of little William, like as not!

Oh, yes, there's lots of pleasant things and no bad news to tell,

Except that old Bill Graves was sick, but now he's up and well.