Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/355

 A Winte?- Idyl.

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��Shall I tell you -where, in Autumn, When the leaf is sear and yellow, Long before the angry blizzard (West wind from the Rocky Mountains) With its force and terror strikes you, You should buy your stoves and ranges. Copper things, and also tinware, To improve your humble wigwam And prepare for coming Winter ?

���Then let every red man listen.

And the white man and the black man

Near to Merrimack's swift waters.

Let them gather to the council

From the banks of the Contoocook,

From brave Hannah Dustin's island.

From the Suncook and from Hooksett,

Penacook and high Moosilauke,

From far Amoskeag and Nashua,

From the falls about Pawtucket,

From Lake Winnipiseogee,

From high mountain, from deep valley.

From Kearsarge and from Monadnock,

From Connecticut to ocean.

From the sea, from upper Cobs, —

Let them gather to the council,

And to words of wisdom listen.

Let them gather in the village

Which the pioneers called Rumford,

Which at present is called Concord.

There the fii-m of Stevens-Duncklee —

Prescott Stevens, Charles H. Duncklee —

Keep for sale a lot of ranges,

Stoves for kitchen and for parlor.

Lanterns, brooms, and some odd teapots.

Frying-pans and such utensils

As are needed at the camp-fire.

In their storehouse they have gathered,

By the lavish nse of money.

Goods of copi^er, tin, and iron

Which will make the squaws contented.

��Which they will exchange for buck-skin,

Or for buffalo or beaver.

Fish or flesh, or fowl or herring,

Or for gold or silver dollars.

But for cash they sell the lowest.

Fair and honest in their dealings,

■W'arranted is all they sell you.

AVe can safely recommend them

To the young and to the guileless, >

To the old and w^ar-worn veterans.

In their store do gather chieftains.

Men of war and men of learning.

Men of weight and men of muscle,

INIembers of the House and Lobby,

Who for wit are celebrated.

And their place is widely noted :

Flow of soul and feast of reason

Are most frequently there met with.

There are richest jokes concocted,

Pamphlets erudite are published.

But no ill-will there is harbored.

They greet all with smiling faces.

In their absence Henry Clough is

jNIodel of urbane politeness.

You will always find them ready

For a joke, or trade, or dicker.

They for many years have traded

On the very spot their store is :

Eighteen fifty-three they started.

And have ever since been selling

Goods to furnish every household —

���Furnaces, and stoves for cooking, Wooden-w'are and stoves for heating If their firm is not the oldest. Stock they carry which is largest In their line within state limits.

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