THE COURTIN' GOD makes sech nights, all white an' still Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown A fireplace filled the room's one side There warn't no stoves (tell comfort died) The wa'nut logs shot sparkles out Agin the chimbley crook-necks hung, The ole queen's-arm thet gran'ther Young The very room, coz she was in, Seemed warm f'om floor to ceilin', An' she looked full ez rosy agin Ez the apples she was peelin'. 'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look On sech a blessed cretur, He was six foot o' man, A 1, He'd sparked it with full twenty gals, But long o' her his veins 'ould run She thought no v'ice hed sech a swing My! when he made Ole Hunderd ring, An' she'd blush scarlit, right in prayer, Thet night, I tell ye, she looked some! She seemed to 've gut a new soul, For she felt sartin-sure he 'd come, She heered a foot, an' knowed it tu, He kin' o' l'itered on the mat, An' yit she gin her cheer a jerk Ez though she wished him furder, An' on her apples kep' to work, Parin' away like murder. "You want to see my Pa, I s'pose?" "Wal I come dasignin'" "To see my Ma? She's sprinklin' clo'es Agin to-morrer's i'nin'." To say why gals acts so or so, He stood a spell on one foot fust, He could n't ha' told ye nuther. Says he, "I'd better call agin"; An' . . . Wal, he up an' kist her. When Ma bimeby upon 'em slips, All kin' o' smily roun' the lips For she was jes' the quiet kind Like streams that keep a summer mind The blood clost roun' her heart felt glued Tell mother see how metters stood, Then her red come back like the tide In meetin' come nex' Sunday. THE BIGLOW PAPERS No. I. BIRDOFREDUM SAWIN, ESQ., TO MR. HOSEA BIGLOW LETTER FROM THE REVEREND HOMER WILBUR, M. A., ENCLOSING THE EPISTLE AFORESAID. JAALAM, 15th Nov., 1861. Ir is not from any idle wish to obtrude my humble person with undue prominence upon the publick view that I resume my pen upon the present occasion. Juniores ad labores. But having been a main instrument in rescuing the talent of my young parishioner from being buried in the ground, by giving it such warrant with the world as could be derived from a name already widely known by several printed discourses (all of which I may be permitted without immodesty to state have been deemed worthy of preservation in the Library of Harvard College by my esteemed friend Mr. Sibley), it seemed becoming that I should not only testify to the genuineness of the following production, but call attention to it, the more as Mr. Biglow had so long been silent as to be in danger of absolute oblivion. I insinuate no claim to any |