Forcing the Vine

We’ve got a clever youngster, jest ez clever ez kin be;

Ain’t no one here his equal, in this village no-sir-ee.

W’y talk uv eddication, he knows more than ha’f the town,

An’ till the spring vacation he wuz crammin’ uv it down.

We saw his scope fur learnin’, an’ we let him jest sail in,

The teachers urgin’ likewise an’ he rolled it up like sin.

He led each uv his classes, though the others struggled great;

We wuz bound to hev him leadin’, though he hed to study late.

“Twuz fun to hear the neighbor findin’ fault becuz our son

Jest scooped the schoolroom honors ez they rolled in, ev’ry one;

We patted him an’ petted him, an’ told him by an’ by

He’d be a shinin’ jewel in the eddication sky.

But, course, he isn’t well, sir, else he’d been much higher still;

An’ when vacation happened w’y he took to bein’ ill.

An’ while he sort uv lingered, up an’ down like, in his bed,

He wanted jest to study, an’ he read an’ read an’ read.

But now he can’t read more, sir, doctor said to take away

His books, an’ talk uv nothin’ ‘cept uv pleasure an’ uv play.

He’s got a run uv fever, an’ the doc hez made it plain

They ain’t one chance in thousan’s but it’s goin’ to wreck his brain.

I ain’t informed his mother, she’s down herself, you see,

An’ so the work an’ worry is jest now heaped on me.

Seems hard to lose thet boy, sir, when he wuz so smart an’ led;

I asked the doc this mornin’, but he simply shook his head.

July 21, ‘09