Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-08-11
POETRY
From The Il. S. SiandarS.
Leaving the Matter Open.
TALE.

q
Stout farmer North, with frugal care,
Laid up provision for his heir,
Not s%corning with hard sun-browned hands
To scrape acquaintance with his lands;
Whatever thing he had to do
He did, and made it pay him, too;
He sold lis waste stone by the pound,
His drains made water-wheels spin round,
His ice in summertime he sold.
His wood brought profit when twas cold,
He dug and delved from morn till night,
Strove TO make profit square with hight,
Lived on his means, cut no great dash,
And paid his debts in honest cash.
On tother hand, his brother South
Lived very much from hand TO mouth,
Played gentleman, nursed dainty hands,
Borrowed North's money on his lands,
And culled his morals and his graces
From cock-pits, bar-rooms, fights, and races (;
His sole work in the farming line
Was keeping droves of long-legged swine,
Which brought great bothers and expenses
TO North in looking after fences,
And, when they happened to break through,
Cost him both time and temper too,
For South insiited it was plain
He ought TO drive them home again,
And North consented to the work
Because he loved TO buy cheap pork.
Meanwhile, South's swine increasing fast,
His farm became too SINAI at last,
So, having thought The matter over,
And feeling bound 10 live in clover
And never pay the clover's worth,
He said one day to brother North q
"Our families are both increasing,
Al ,La,,b M, Iahor ,i,hon, ,a.ginr
Our produce soon will be too scant
TO keep our children out of want;
They who wish fortune to be lasting
Must be both prudent and furecasting
We soon shall need more land a lot
/ know, that cheaply can be bot;
You lend the cash, I'll buy the acres,
And we'll be equally partakers."
Poor North, whose Anglo-Saxon blood
Gave him a hankering after mud,
Wavered a moment, then consented,
And when the cash was paid, repented
To make the new land worth a pin,
Thought he, it must be all fenced in,
For, if South's swine once get the run ont
No kind OF farming can be done ont;
If that don't suit the other side,
IT is best we Instantly divide.
But somehow South could meier incline
This way or that 10 run the line,
And always found some new p~Tetence
'Gainst setting the division fence +;
At last he said -
"For peace's sake,
Liberal concessions l will make;
Though | believe, upon my soul,
I've a Just ttle 10 the whole,
I'll make an offer which | call
Gen'rous,-we'll have no fence at all;
Then both of us, whene'er we choose,
Can take what part we want TO use;
If you should chance to need it first,
Pick you the best, I'll take the worst"
"Agreed ~ cried North though he, this fal
With wheat and rye I'll sow it all,
In that way | shall get the start,
And South may whistle for his part;
So thought, so done, the field was sown,
And, winter having come and gone,
Sly North walked blithely forth to spy,
The progress of his wheat and rye;
Heavens, what "a sight! his brothers. swine
Had asked themselves all out to dine,
Such grunting, munching, roofing, showing
The soil seemed all alive and moving,
AS for his grain, such work they'd made on
He could Mt spy a single blade ont.
Of in a rage he rushed to South,
''My wheat and rye"--grief choked hi
mouth
spray don't mind me-" said South, ''br
plant
All of the new land that you want -
"Yes, but your hogs" cried North
''The grain
Won't hurt them," answered South again
"But they destroy my g%rain;"
mo doubt;
IT is fortunate you've found it out;
Misfortunes teach, and only they,
You must not sow it in their way :"
NAY, you," says North, 'must keep thel
out !"
'Did create them with a ~snout?"
Asked South demurely ;"as agreed"
''The land is open to your seed,
And would you fain prevent my pigs
From running there their harmless rigs?
Goo knows view this compromise
With not the most approving eyes;
i gave up my unquestioned rights
For sake Of quiet days and nights,
i offered then, you know It's true,
To cut the piece of land in two."
"Then cut it now" growls North;
"Abate
Your heat" says South, at is now too lat
] offered you the rocky corner,
But yon, ofyour own good the %scorner,
Refused to take it | am sorry
No doubt you might have found a quarry,
Perhaps a gold-mine, for aught | know,
Containing heaps of native rhiDo;
You can't expect me to resign
My right
"But where" quo,h North, "are mine
"Your rights" says tother, swell, that's fu
ny,
Thought the land"-
81 paid the money!"