When He Gets Time

“When I git time,” said Halsey Simms,

     One day in Stokes’s store,

“I’m goin’ to fix my fences up

     An’ close my farm once more.

I’m goin’ to clean my pasture lot

     Uv all the underbrush;

I’m goin’ to do all that,” said he

     “When I git threw my rush.”

“An’ then I’m goin’ to dig a well

     Close by the kitchen door

So we won’t hev to lug our drink

     A ha’f mile or more.

I’m goin’ to dam my medder lot

     An’ put my ice in free;

No sense in buyin’ ice at all”

     Said Halsey Simms to me.

“An’ then,” says he, “when I git time,

     I’m goin’ into the woods

An’ cut some timber fur a barn

     To hol’ my farmin’ goods.

The one I’ve got ain’t big enough,

     An’' when I git that done

I’m goin’ to keep a dozen cows,

     Instid uv only one.”

An’ Halsey dreamed an’ talked by day,

     An’ planned an’ talked by night

About the things ‘at he would do

     Whenever time come right.

He’s talkin’ uv ‘em jest the same

     In Stokes’s store today;

But Halsey ain’t no different

     Frum people fur away.

Oct. 7, ‘09