HOME AGAIN WITH ME JAMES WHITCOMB Rfl PY i 1 I no8 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM S.H.Bui-nliam Cornell University Library PS 2704.H7 1908 Home again with me. 3 1924 022 155 935 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022155935 ^ i- Copyright 190S James Whitcomb Ril!|» ^ "DEDICATION BOBBS -^smm HIS LOVE OF HOME "As love of native land," the old man said,, ««Er stars and stripes a-wavin' overhead, Er nearest kith-and-kin, er daily bread, A Hoosier's love is for the old homeste»4.' '\ itimi ri Clidiiijj.J iC'^^i- ^1) 'Stid o' 6ad, I ort to be Feelin' good pertickerly — Yes, and extry thankful, too,-=- ' Cause my nearest kith-and-kin, My Elviry's schoolin' 's through* And r got her home ag'in — Home ag'in with me! 'Home Ag'in with me '" Same as ef her mother' d bin Livin', I have done my best By the girl, and watchfiilest; Nussed her — keerful' as I could — From a baby, day and night, — Drawin' on the neighberhood And the women-folks as light As needsessity 'u'd 'low — 'Ccpt in "teethin'," onc't, and fight Through black-measles. .... "When our baby died — " '^r—^^ _^_^'?%? Don't know now How we ever saved the child! M ;''\^^'^^^^^^^Doc he'd give her up, and said ' '"' (As I stood there by the bed Sort o' foolin' with her hair On the hot wet piller there) "Wuz no use!" — And at them-air Very words she waked and smiled- Yes, and knowed me. And that's where I broke down, and simply jes ellered like a boy — I guess! — g^' ' iItHij_i yiikw^jTV" V^ Hi* ^^^';f'''^:y: 'l^u!»ffr L'diniln tinhi'^i]^ mm. S)-4i. Women claimed I di3, but I Alius helt I didn't cry- But wuz laughin', — and I wuz,-^ (Men don't cry like women does!) Well, right then and there I felt 'T 'uz her mother's doin's, and, Jes like to myse'f, I knelt, Whisperin' "/ understand". . , { M ffs*-- . iiC\m\\irQius.W^]fjj. -1 V _-g/ ^M <--ji So I've raised her, you might say, Stric'ly in the narrer way 'At her mother walked therein— Not so quite religiously, Yit still strivin'-like to do Ever' thing a father could Do he knowed the mother would Ef she'd lived. — And now all's through And r got her home ag'in — Home ag'in with me! ''^'^y"^<&kii^^^^-"^' ""s/ ■-;, s 7:^:fvx?P ■■1; Lf^ '^u_r r'j\-s!e_.Vo/ will if"' ^^W~its^ And r bin so lonesome, too— Here o' late, especially, — 'Old Aunt Abigail," you know. Ain't no company; — and so Jes the hired hand, you see — Jonas — like a relative More — sence he come here to live With us, nigh ten year' ago. "^^ 4- \ ^ /'"ivP Still he don't count much, you know, ^^'-^v --^x In the line o' company — Lonesome, 'peared-like, 'most as me! So, as / say, I' bin so Special lonesome-like and blue. With Elviry, like she's bin, 'Way so much, last two er three Year'. — But now she's home ag'in— Home ag'in with me! i0mm -^/ ; "Thinkin' back's a thing 'at grows" v^iy /i^ J''f) Driv in fer her yisterday, "^'^1^^ Me and Jonas— gay and spry. We jes cut up, all the way! Yes, and sung! — tel, blame it! I Keyed my voice up 'bout as high As when — days 'at I wuz young — "Buckwheat-notes" wuz all they sung. Jonas bantered me, and 'greed -'I -I.. To sing one 'at town-folks sing Down at Split Stump 'er High-Low^:^ '( : ^^. ((■:■ mm " Doc jes' niianders round in that old rig o' his" Some new "ballet," said, 'at he'd •v^kfc',^ Learnt — about " The Grapevine S wingj^^j^|-^ - f^ And when Ae quit, / begun To chune up my voice and run Through the what's-called "scales" and "do- Sol-me-rays" I usf to know — Then let loose old favor//^ one, "Hunters o' Kentucky!" My/ Tel I thought the boy would ^/>/ And we iotA laughed. , I A ' s^N si^-j».M^uiijii^i^^^«*y^ ' ^]- \ ms' 1^: IK Mm r^ Yes, and still ^>, ^^f^f^^if^icerd more laughin', top the hill; <;';>j-^':K^t Fer we'd missed Elviry's train. And she'd lit out 'crosst the fields — Dewdrops dancin' at her heels, — And cut up old Smoots's lane So's to meet us. And there in Shadder o' the chinkypin, With a danglin' dogwood-bough v)\\ Bloomin' 'hove her — See her now! — >^ r , 1 .-w '^^•^f^ ^rr, €'\ :-.-, I: 'f White and blushy, too, as she "Howdy'd" up to Jona-s and Jieuked her head and waved her hand. 'Hey!" says I, as she bounced in The spring-wagon, reachin' back To give me a lift, "whoof-ee!" I-says-ee, "you're home ag'in — Home ag'in with met' Lord ! how wi/J she wtiz and glad, Gittin' home! — and things she had To inquire about, and talk — Plowin', plantin', and the stock- News o' neighberhood; and how Wuz the Deem-girls doin' now, Sence that-air young chicken-hawk They was "tamin"' soared away With their settin'-hen, one day? — (Said she'd got Mame's postal-card 'Bout it, very day 'at she Started home from Bethany. 1 ^Ck*#:;ii- ^' \T\ 1 J f -i C'ii 1 a l»r [V*H ty (j;' '_ ■J ,111. S-w ' '^'/> M ^^ ^^;li^ How wuz pro-duce — eggs, and lard?— Er wuz stores still claimin' "hard gt.^ .4/^^ Times," as usual? And, says she, '^^^!:^^^ Troubled-like, "How's Deedie — szyf Sence pore child e-loped away And got back, and goin' to 'ply Fer school-license by and by — And where's 'Lijy workin' at? And how's 'Aunt' and * Uncle Jake'? How wuz 'Old Maje' — and the cat!" And wuz Marthy's baby fat ;As his 'Humpty-Dumpty* ma?- L I "They hain't no better time . . . than the times we ust to know" Bf^-''^[:-Ox^ Sweetest thing she ever saw! — Must run crosst and see em, too. Soon as she turned in and got Supper fer us — smokin'-hot — And the 'dishes' all wuz through. — ■ Si'cb a supper! W'y, I set There and et, and et, and et! — ■ Jes et on, tel Jonas he Pushed his chair back, laughed,, and says, 'V)^"I could walk /ii's log!" r~=\, "T^. z''?^^? f'-'l And we ^^|p 1, - ^1 __^» n 1 11*1 ] ii;miiWLniii]iUiJ'|,y (sty <)}»,?' "My Grandfather Squeers' PK-A J V; And a-watchin' back to scfc Ef I wuz asleep — and then Passin' in where 'Viry wu And where, I declare, it does 'Pear to me I heerd him say, Wild and glad and whisperin' — 'Peared--like heerd him Say, says-eej, **Ah? r got you heme ag'in — Home ag'iri with me!" „ /CT^'Vi, P] '*J ■- 's '-. ~J*.i*ii ' ! iifle'Clinaty.Utg ^^Ti$=^