Part 103 (1/2)

So we shuddered there in silence, For the stoutest berth was shook, While the wooden gates were opened And the mate talked with the cook.

And as thus we lay in darkness, Each one wis.h.i.+ng we were there, ”We are through!” the captain shouted, And he sat down on a chair.

And his little daughter whispered, Thinking that he ought to know, ”Isn't travelling by ca.n.a.l-boats Just as safe as it is slow?”

Then he kissed the little maiden, And with better cheer we spoke, And we trotted into Pittsburg, When the morn looked through the smoke.

_Ph[oe]be Cary._

THERE'S A BOWER OF BEAN-VINES

There's a bower of bean-vines in Benjamin's yard, And the cabbages grow round it, planted for greens; In the time of my childhood 'twas terribly hard To bend down the bean-poles, and pick off the beans.

That bower and its products I never forget, But oft, when my landlady presses me hard, I think, are the cabbages growing there yet, Are the bean-vines still bearing in Benjamin's yard?

No, the bean-vines soon withered that once used to wave, But some beans had been gathered, the last that hung on; And a soup was distilled in a kettle, that gave All the fragrance of summer when summer was gone.

Thus memory draws from delight, ere it dies, An essence that breathes of it awfully hard; As thus good to my taste as 'twas then to my eyes, Is that bower of bean-vines in Benjamin's yard.

_Ph[oe]be Cary._

REUBEN

That very time I saw, (but thou couldst not), Walking between the garden and the barn, Reuben, all armed; a certain aim he took At a young chicken, standing by a post, And loosed his bullet smartly from his gun, As he would kill a hundred thousand hens.

But I might see young Reuben's fiery shot Lodged in the chaste board of the garden fence, And the domesticated fowl pa.s.sed on In henly meditation, bullet free.

_Ph[oe]be Cary._

THE WIFE

Her was.h.i.+ng ended with the day, Yet lived she at its close, And pa.s.sed the long, long night away In darning ragged hose.

But when the sun in all its state Illumed the Eastern skies, She pa.s.sed about the kitchen grate And went to making pies.

_Ph[oe]be Cary._

WHEN LOVELY WOMAN