Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/199

 Hoiv Polly Came Home. 189

Next day was quarterly ineetiii' ; the deacon and I allers go ;

The preachiu' is giner ly powerful to raise up the hearts of the low.

"We stayed all night with the brethren, and when we got home she had fled !

Yes, Polly had left us for Jim, and the deacon wished she was dead.

And he told us never to mention the name of Polly to him,

And likewise we'd better avoid any conversation on Jim.

After this, Elislia growed old in a way it grieved me to see :

He looked like a man of seventy, and he hardly was sixty-three.

He left off contrivin' and plannin', and willed his possessions away ;

And P^lizy Ann and Josiah, they came to the farm to stay.

The bank stock was given to Moses, and Tom had the timber lot.

And Elizy Ann was co see after us for the things we had got.

Now, I do n't deny but what it's a cross to navigate straight

With folks that is getting in years, and keep up an even-paced gait.

You need a good deal of religion, and darter Elizy and I,

We could n't seem to agree, and no more could Elisha and Si :

They put us off into a bed-room where there wa'n 't no sign of the sun.

And we never could be quite sartin when day ended or when it begun.

Elizy Ann is a scholar, and she says that coffee and tea

Ain't fit Un- the human stomach, and sugar's the worst of the three.

Now it's rather a toughish job for a woman as old as I

To be satisfied with cold water, and swaller her flap-jack dry ;

But I had signed off my rights with a thoughtless stroke of the pen,

And if I complained the leastest, Elizy was mad as a hen.

One dav when thino-s was crosswavs, and words run consider'ble high, Josiah said he was tired of waitin' for us to die ;

And Elizy Ann she slat round, and kicked at the dog which was lame, As if she considered that animal was somehow or ruther to blame ; And Elisha sot still and quiet, and seemed most remarkably meek, And seeing his mood, I braced myself, and managed not to speak.

Next day Elisha told Si that he 'd clean entirely forgot.

In making his will and giving to Tom the whole of that timber lot.

That it wa' n 't strict justice to 'Lizy, and he 'd call the attorney in <^

And have affairs regulated exact as they 'd ought to a' been.

Josiah pricked up his ears — he's smart as a whip after money.

And when he scents out sixpence, he 's sweet as molasses and honey.

He brought the will to Elisha, and Elisha examined it through.

And I sot there a wonderin' what he was goin' to do.

He folded the dockyment careful, and slung it into the fire,

And riz up tall and straight as the Orthodox meeting-house spire ;

He strode to the door and opened it, and sez he to Elizy Ann,

" Git out of this house right brief ! you and your cussid man ! "

I felt dreadful to hear the deacon use such an unchristian word. But then I expect his temper was pretty consider'ble stirred ;

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