The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,084 pages of information about The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell.

The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,084 pages of information about The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell.
fourteenth edition,
He knows it takes some enterprise to run an oppersition;
Ourn’s the fust thru-by-daylight train, with all ou’doors for deepot;
Yourn goes so slow you’d think ‘twuz drawed by a las’ cent’ry
  teapot;—­ 170
Wal, I gut all on ’t paid in gold afore our State seceded,
An’ done wal, for Confed’rit bonds warn’t jest the cheese I needed: 
Nut but wut they’re ez good ez gold, but then it’s hard a-breakin’
  on ’em,
An’ ignorant folks is ollers sot an’ wun’t git used to takin’ on ’em;
They’re wuth ez much ez wut they wuz afore ole Mem’nger signed ’em,
An’ go off middlin’ wal for drinks, when ther’ ’s a knife behind ’em;
We du miss silver, jes’ fer thet an’ ridin’ in a bus,
Now we’ve shook off the desputs thet wuz suckin’ at our pus;
An’ it’s because the South’s so rich; ‘twuz nat’ral to expec’
Supplies o’ change wuz jes’ the things we shouldn’t recollec’; 180
We’d ough’ to ha’ thought aforehan’, though, o’ thet good rule o’
  Crockett’s,
For ’t ‘s tiresome cairin’ cotton-bales an’ niggers in your pockets,
Ner ‘tain’t quite hendy to pass off one o’ your six-foot Guineas
An’ git your halves an’ quarters back in gals an’ pickaninnies: 
Wal, ’tain’t quite all a feller’d ax, but then ther’s this to say,
It’s on’y jest among ourselves thet we expec’ to pay;
Our system would ha’ caird us thru in any Bible cent’ry,
‘fore this onscripterl plan come up o’ books by double entry;
We go the patriarkle here out o’ all sight an’ hearin’,
For Jacob warn’t a suckemstance to Jeff at financierin’; 190
He never’d thought o’ borryin’ from Esau like all nater
An’ then cornfiscatin’ all debts to sech a small pertater;
There’s p’litickle econ’my, now, combined ’ith morril beauty
Thet saycrifices privit eends (your in’my’s, tu) to dooty! 
Wy, Jeff ‘d ha’ gin him five an’ won his eye-teeth ’fore he knowed it,
An’, stid o’ wastin’ pottage, he’d ha’ eat it up an’ owed it. 
But I wuz goin’ on to say how I come here to dwall;—­
‘Nough said, thet, arter lookin’ roun’, I liked the place so wal,
Where niggers doos a double good, with us atop to stiddy ’em,
By bein’ proofs o’ prophecy an’ suckleatin’ medium, 200
Where a man’s sunthin’ coz he’s white, an’ whiskey’s cheap ez fleas,
An’ the financial pollercy jes’ sooted my idees,
Thet I friz down right where I wuz, merried the Widder Shennon,
(Her thirds wuz part in cotton-land, part in the curse o’ Canaan,)
An’ here I be ez lively ez a chipmunk on a wall,
With nothin’ to feel riled about much later ’n Eddam’s fall.

Ez fur ez human foresight goes, we made an even trade: 
She gut an overseer, an’ I a fem’ly ready-made,
The youngest on ’em ’s ‘mos’ growed up, rugged an’ spry ez weazles,
So ’s ‘t ther’ ‘s no resk o’ doctors’ bills fer hoopin’-cough an’ measles. 
Our farm’s at Turkey-Buzzard Roost, Little Big

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.