In Stokes’s Grocery Store

A circle gathers ev’ry night

     Say twenty odd or more,

Around the big invitin’ stove

     In Stokes’s grocery store.

Nail kegs and cracker barrels take

     The place uv fine settees,

An’ here the circle spends its time

     In most luxur’us ease.

Here’s where the farmin’s carried on,

     Here’s where the hay is raised;

Here’s where the cords of wood are cut,

     An’ where the stock is grazed.

Here’s where the monstrous clams are dug,

     Instead uv on the shore;

Great deeds are done around the stove

     In Stokes’s grocery store.

The women folks around the town

     ‘Low ef these great affairs

Would only happen close to home

     They’d all be millionaires.

But while they’re luggin’ up the coal,

     Or wood frum out uv door,

These warriors are fightin’ still

     In Stokes’s grocery store.

The nights they come the night they go,
Spring, summer, winter, fall.

An’ still they meet there regular,
The settlers, one an’ all.

I’d tell you more uv what they do,
And rake them fellers o’er,

But I must go and take my seat,
In Stokes’s grocery store.

c. Nov. 29, 1908