A SPRAY OF KENTUCKY PINE

  —­Placed At The Feet Of The Dead Poet—­
  —­James Whitcomb Riley—­

  By The Hand
    Of the Man From
      Down On The Farm—­
        —­George Douglass Sherley

  —­On The Banks
      Of Wolf Run—­
          —­1916—­

  Second Edition

  From Ye Olden Printe Shope—­
    —­James M. Byrnes, Esquire—­
      On Ye Long Highway
        Called Shorte in Ye Goodly
          Towne Of Lexington Kentucky

The Inscription Two-fold

To The Dead: 
Reverently Inscribed
—­To the Indiana-Born
World-Wide Poet—­
—­James Whitcomb Riley—­

—­This Spray Of Kentucky Pine—­

To The Living: 
Also Lovingly Inscribed
By The Man From Down
On The Farm To The
Dear Lady Here On The
Banks Of Wolf Run
—­His Mother—­
On Grateful Commemoration
Of Her Eighty-Fifth Birthday
August 20, 1916

The Prelude

—­A Note Explanatory—­

With James Whitcomb Riley, some years ago.  This Man From Down On The Farm, made a Reading Tour, of—­in Population—­more than one-half of this Imperial Republic, including the Cream of the Canadian Provinces.  Of that Tour, at some other time, in some more leisurely hour, he desires, if able, to make a full and faithful Record.  This, is but a humble Spray of Kentucky Pine, placed at the feet of the Dead Poet!

  According to a long established Custom,
    the Man, in some way, in private print—­
  —­for the Relative, for the Friend, for the Stranger too—­
  quietly Celebrates the various Red-Letter Days, of the
  Dear Lady Here, On the Banks of Wolf Run—­his Mother! 
  Her full Restoration, to her usual Good Health,
  is a Source of much Joy, and the cause of much Gratitude. 
  The many Prayers made for her Recovery must have been of
  much avail before the Great White Throne, of Infinite Mercy! 
  He is also deeply grateful, that the nearness of her
  Eighty-Fifth Birthday, makes it possible for him,
  to make an Inscription Two-fold, for the Dead,
  for the Living—­for the Dear Poet, for the Beloved Mother! 
  The linking of their names together, under this Spray of
  Kentucky Pine—­culled by a hand most loving—­is like
  unto finding the other half of a broken Chord, in some
  Prelude Elusive:  for James Whitcomb Riley, deeply
  endeared himself, to the Dear Lady Here, while he and
  her son were a long while away, on their Reading Tour. 
  Out of sheer Kindliness, out of Goodness of Heart, he often
  wrote to her, delightful Letters of Good Cheer, filled with
  a charming detail, with more than a trifle of over-Praise;
  all of which, is most acceptable, to the heart of a too fond mother. 
  Recently, from his Winter Home in the South-land, he sent to
  her, in response to one of these Farm Bubbles, a little
  Bit of unpublished Verse, written before his hand had
  failed him, reproduced for her—­and others—­in fac-simile.