Hillsdale Whig standard. (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1846-1851, 1850-12-17
From Sartains Union Magazine of Jan. 1851.
THR SEASONS.
BY ERAsrUs W. ELLswoRrH


WISrER, happy age might see,
At home among his children three,
Ii he could but contented be.
When skies grow fair.
He frets and sweats perpetually
For change Of air.
'I must be gone-go get my steed-
But, children. lest we come to need
Spring Summer, Autumn, be agreed,
And mind the pelf
You'll fnd the pots aud pans of seed
Upon the shelf"
Winter returned, with faithful shoon,
Some days beyond the harvest moon,
When winds had got their pipes in tune
To have blow.
And in the sombre afternoon
scud of snow.
To hail him to his homestead towers,
Lacqueyed by Love, and scarfed with flowers
Came Spring, the queen of rosy hours,
And Summer, up,
And Autumn, from his vintage bowers,
With ready cup.
But he was cross as cross could be,
For very, very cold was he
(Cold as a miser's charity
Enat no man meddles)-
And to the fire pat, tremblingy
His picks dnd pedals.
With Autumn's logs the chimney roared,
The supper reeked with Summers hoard.
And Spring with flowers dressed the board
The carl peered roun'-
"Ye're likely folks, my three aderedl''
He safe him down
Spring sang a song-her tuneful powers
Graded the soul in vernal bowers
Forth stepped the sun his closdy towers
Skies opened fair
le seemed TO feel the breath of flowers
Among your hair.
And Summer sang busy tale,
OF fruits and grains in russell mail.
Recled the full vain, of verdure pale,
In at the door;
Rang the quick trampling thrasher's fail
Upon the floor.
And Autumn breathed his thoughtful lore,
In echoes dying evermore;
Or swelling, DER a wasted shore.
From solitudes.
Barked the loud axe, with startled roar,
In naked woods.
Warmed up with wine and social glee,
Winter, a merry carl was he.
With drops of tears in either e'e
He told his stories;
Each one as queer as queer could be,
And each more glorious.
He'd been in jack Frost's capitol
Seen in an icy armour-hall,
OF icicles, bout great and small
In rows.lke guns
Seen powdsr-snow, and hail for ball.
By scores oftons
He'd stood upon the Arctic seas,
Where he had seen the old moon squeeze
Through Sims's Hole, by hard degrees,
And kenned it well;
But if the moon were stone, or cheese,
He could not tell.
Beneath a sky-bow borreals,
He'd danced, on ice the jig of sailors,
With dewlapped witches three, as pale as
And bue--as Death;
While wolves sang chorus, hoarse as whalers,
With all their breath.
But in the reel he dropped his stic''-
They took it for a cursed taick,
And skyward, whisked, rocket-quck.
With thuAder din,
The ice, it bursted in nick,
And soused him in.
In truth, he sopped it-got uprorious,
And bade his daughters sing like Boreas,
He hugged EN-, like god uxorious,
And kissed EN- DER,
And thumped his pewter mug victorious,
And called for more.
His children tried to stint his measure,
1t moved the old mans quick dispeasure
"Na! nal now-giyel-I am not azure!
Ifye were /,
So old, and cold, ye'd know the treasure
OF being dry
The morning blazed--no wind did blow
And icices, in many a row,
Went, crash, and slIittered DER the snow.
Ia dreary shape
Lay hearth, and board; and Winter snored
With jaws agape.
Now, reader, don't put up your hair
With this true story try to bear;
Although it makes old Winter bear
The maks of Vice:
Wisdom, and Wit, and Virtue are
Not over nice.
Though social nights, and rousing cheer.
Makes Old Advice less wise than queer,
And Prudence says, with eye severe,
at is not welll"
Be kind, if Age, but once a year,
Der does himself
....<z--z-<-~---u--sa.p- sa.p-.--z--u-r.z<.zz~-sz-<.-
SEEDS OF THoUGHr.-He who begins life
,uer than uuth. will proceed by loving
hristiauity bvtler than truth, will proceed
! loving his own sect or Church better than
hrisianity, aud end in loviog himself better
Ian all.-Coleridge
'Hause. where was you born
'Ou de Haldoebarrack.'