Part 3 (2/2)

Spread them shadders anywhere, I'll git down and waller there, And obleeged to you at that!

SEPTEMBER DARK

I

The air falls chill; The whippoorwill Pipes lonesomely behind the hill: The dusk grows dense, The silence tense; And lo, the katydids commence.

II

Through shadowy rifts Of woodland, lifts The low, slow moon, and upward drifts, While left and right The fireflies' light Swirls eddying in the skirts of Night.

III

O Cloudland, gray And level, lay Thy mists across the face of Day!

At foot and head, Above the dead, O Dews, weep on uncomforted!

THE CLOVER

Some sings of the lily, and daisy, and rose, And the pansies and pinks that the Summertime throws In the green gra.s.sy lap of the medder that lays Blinkin' up at the skyes through the suns.h.i.+ney days; But what is the lily and all of the rest Of the flowers, to a man with a hart in his brest That was dipped brimmin' full of the honey and dew Of the sweet clover-blossoms his babyhood knew?

I never set eyes on a clover-field now, Er fool round a stable, er climb in the mow, But my childhood comes back jest as clear and as plane As the smell of the clover I'm sniffin' again; And I wunder away in a bare-footed dream, Whare I tangle my toes in the blossoms that gleam With the dew of the dawn of the morning of love Ere it wept ore the graves that I'm weepin' above.

And so I love clover--it seems like a part Of the sacerdest sorrows and joys of my hart; And wharever it blossoms, oh, thare let me bow And thank the good G.o.d as I'm thankin' Him now; And I pray to Him still fer the stren'th when I die, To go out in the clover and tell it good-bye, And lovin'ly nestle my face in its bloom While my soul slips away on a breth of purfume

OLD OCTOBER

Old October's purt' nigh gone, And the frosts is comin' on Little HEAVIER every day-- Like our hearts is thataway!

Leaves is changin' overhead Back from green to gray and red, Brown and yeller, with their stems Loosenin' on the oaks and e'ms; And the balance of the trees Gittin' balder every breeze-- Like the heads we're scratchin' on!

Old October's purt' nigh gone.

I love Old October so, I can't bear to see her go-- Seems to me like losin' some Old-home relative er chum-- 'Pears like sorto' settin' by Some old friend 'at sigh by sigh Was a-pa.s.sin' out o' sight Into everlastin' night!

Hickernuts a feller hears Rattlin' down is more like tears Drappin' on the leaves below-- I love Old October so!

Can't tell what it is about Old October knocks me out!-- I sleep well enough at night-- And the blamedest appet.i.te Ever mortal man possessed,-- Last thing et, it tastes the best!-- Warnuts, b.u.t.ternuts, pawpaws, 'Iles and limbers up my jaws Fer raal service, sich as new Pork, spareribs, and sausage, too.-- Yit, fer all, they's somepin' 'bout Old October knocks me out!

<script>