Early Mornings On The Farm

O, it’s early in the morning for the farmer and his flock,

Pitching hay into the mangers for the waiting, hungry stock.

Cleaning off the stamping horses, cleaning out the steaming stalls,

Even listening o’er the crunching for belated breakfast calls.

Then the music of the milking as it strikes against the pails,

And the freshness of the odors as our noses it assails

Makes the mornings in the country full of health and full of charm,

For there’s always plenty doing on a well conducted farm.

O, the fragrance of the mornings, of the early buds perfume

As they float across the window and pervade your sleeping room;

O, the singing birds that waken at the breaking of the dawn!

No alarm we need for waking on an early country morn.

When the milking is completed and the stock is clean and fed,

And the morning sun is breaking through the purple overhead,

With the milk pail capped and foamy to the kitchen we retreat

Where the coffee is a-steaming and the pancakes fit to eat!

Such a breakfast in the country! Ham and eggs and muffins rare,

Maple syrup on the pancakes which are browned with mother’s care;

Fragrant coffee for a teaser, cream as thick as thick can be,

And a dandy house-made doughnut for a filler, don’t you see!

O, the goodness of the water from the old well handy by

Where we slake our thirst each morning ere the sun mounts to the sky;

Where we fill the jog o’er flowing for the field work far away,

Where we swap a spicy story ere we scatter for the day.

Then we hustle for the horses which are harnessed double quick;

Pa is right amongst the helpers with the orders coming thick.

Some are off to fix the fences, some are ploughing up the ground –

It is part of pa’s religion that no idlers be around.

O, the morning in the country! They are early – days are long,

But we always have a story, and we always have a song;

There’ a heartiness about them and a health and freedom too –

O, the early country mornings, may they never pass from view!

April 14, 1911

Pub. Boston
Herald, April 23, 1911