The Nature Man

Folks said he warn’t of much account

     Jest kind o’ puttered round,

An’ took up space that really b’longed

     To others on the ground.

They said he’d really never done

     Enough to claim a hold

On life, an’ still he kept along

     While other folks grew old.

But ef they wanted shrub or vine,

     Some spec’man rare or new,

Out in the woods they went to him,

     He knew jest where it grew.

Or if they speshly wanted clams,

     The choicest ones, an’ big,

They allus ast of him becuz

     Hey knew just where to dig.

He knew the name uv ev’rything

     That grew out uv the ground;

But still they said he warn’t no good

     ‘Cept jest to putter round.

They said he’d die where he begun,

     Starvation’d be his end;

But all the birds an’ beasts around

     Knew him to be their friend.

Somehow I allus felt that he

     Wuz greater than they said;

That mebbie God app’inted him

     To lead the life he led.

He never shone in arts or war,

     Nor preached a sermon grand,

But allus loved his feller men,

     An’ brutes would lick his hand.

May 17, ‘09