We’ve
lived out here on this old place for forty year or so,
Good wife an’ me, through sun and storm,
through rain an’ hail an’ snow;
We’ve
worked it out of stumps an’ stones, we’ve made the desert bloom,
An’ we’ve had comfort out of life, an’ lots
o’ health an’ room
But,
as you know John, we are old, the boys an’ girls hev gone,
An mother’n we had grown to feel a little
mite forlorn,
An’
we decided we would swap the farm, an’ so much down,
For jest a little cozy flat, a modern house
in town.
The
agent he come off out here an’ he looked our place all through,
Then figgered in a little book an’ said
what he would do;
He’d
swap a bang-up place in town, all fitted up to date,
A thousan’ dollars cash to boot, for our
entire estate.
He
fetched us pictures of the place in town, an’ ma an’ me
Just
felt that we
would like to swap an’ live where people be.
We
felt so kind of weary here, so lonesome an’ cast down,
It seemed like getting’ out of jail to hev
a house in town.
Then
we could be nigh to the boys, and nigh the girls as well,
An’ things would be, excuse my pride, a
little bit more swell.
An
so, as you remember, John, we took the train that day
To town to go an’ see the place a hundred
miles away.
We
took the train an’ saw it, John, an’ we hev just got back,
All tired an’ beat a-feelin’ like we’d been
upon the rack.
We’ve
washed an’ had a bite to eat, an’ just got settled down
From that long trip to see the house we
thought we’d buy in town.
Well,
first we took a trolley car an’ rode an’ hour or more,
All round the town an’ up an’ down till we
was stiff an’ sore.
An’
then we got off at a street, I think was “Placid Place”,
A narrer poked-up city street without no
breathin’ space.
The
agent took us to the house, a narrer brick affair,
Which didn’t look much like the views he’d
showed us, I declare!
An’
when we went inside, O my! Our sperits they went down,
‘Twarnt much like our quarters here, that
little flat in town.
The
rooms were small, the winders spurse, one side there wasn’t none,
An’ only in the very front could we see any
sun.
Ma
said the kitchen made her faint, they wasn’t room for two,
An’ I confess I felt myself to feeling
ruther blue.
The
open plumbin’ an’ all that was mighty handy, yet
Thet wasn’t no closets for our trunks like
we hev here you bet;
An’
when it come to sleepin’ rooms, ma put her slipper down;
“I couldn’t sleep in things like them,”
says ma, “not here in town”.
An’
then to cap it all they had a fire two doors away,
An’ all the engines in the town come with a
big hooray,
An’
more’n a thousand people come, an’ dogs an’ girls an’ boys,
An’ sech a time we never see, an’ never
heard sech noise.
‘Twas
like all bedlam was let loose, an’ ma was nerved to kill,
An’ she jonged to be back home, where
ev’rything was still.
They
warn’t no grass around the house, the streets were dry an’ brown,
An’ we felt sort o’ homesick, John, to git
right out of town.
‘Twas
then we saw our big front yard, with mother’s posy beds,
The sun flowers in the garden patch
a-wavin’ of their heads;
The
big an’ shady maple trees all up an’ down the road,
The green an’ wavin’ fields beyond where
rye an’ wheat was sowed.
‘Twas
then we saw the roomy house, where we had lived for years,
An’ ma an’ me I’ll own it, John, just
couldn’t hide the tears.
We
thanked the agent for his care, for which we got a frown,
An’ then we took the trolley back, an’ then
the train from town.
An’
here we be back home again, our dream hez passed away;
We’re back here on the good old farm, an’
here we’re goin’ to stay.
It
never looked as it looks now, so big, so full of room,
With ev’ry corner full of joy an’ ev’ry
field abloom.
We
miss our sons and daughters, John, an’ wish we might live near,
But here’s the place for ma an’ me, now
more than ever dear.
An’
we are mighty happy, John, to think we’re settled down
Where we have lived for forty year, an’ not
way off in town.
April 29, ‘10
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