Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-05-07
1Doetrp.
The Old Pennsylvania Farmer.
BY BAYARD TAYLOR.

The Old Pennsylvania Farmer.
BY BAYARD TAYLOR.
well-well this is comfort, now-the air is
And yet tits March the twentieth, or twenty first,
And Reuben ploughs the hill for corn; I thought
But now see the furrows turned, guess it's dry
enough
don't half live, penned up in doors; stoves
not like the sun.
When can't see how things go on, fear they re
might have farmed till now, think-one's fam
As if a man can't oversee who's in his eightieth
year,
Father, 1 mind, was eighty-ave before he gave up
But be was dim o. sight, and crippled with the
rheumatic.
followed in the old, steady way, SO he was sat.
isfed;
But Reuben likes new-fangled things and Ways I
can't abide.
I'm glad built this southern porch; my chair
haven't seen as fine spring this FIVE and twenty
And how the time goes round SO quick Ia week,
Since they were huskfng on the nat, and now
they plough for corn
When was young, time had for me a lazy ox's
But now it's like blooded horse, that means to
win the race.
And yet can't fill out my days, tire myself with
I'd rather use my legs and hands than plague my
head with thought.
There's Marshall, too, see from here: he and his
Why don't they take the lower field ? that one is
poor and thin.
A coat of lime it ought to have, but they're do
less set:
They think swamp-mud's as good, but we shall
2 see what corn they get
Across the level, Browns new place begins to
make show;
thought he'd have to wait for trees, but, bless
They say it'sfne--two acres filed with evergreens
and things;
But SO much land it worries me. for not cent it
brings.
He has the right, don't deny, to please himself
But tits bad example set and leads young folks
astray: :~s
Book-learning gets the upper-hand and work gets
And they that come long after us will find things
gone to wrack.
Now Reuben's on the hither side, his team comes
back again;
know how deep he sets the share, see the horses
Ihad that field SO clean of stones, but he must
Hen have it like turnpike soon, and scarcely fit
for sheep.
If father lived, I'd like to know what he would
say to these
New notions of the younger men, who farm by
There's different stock and other grass there's
patent plough and cart
Five hundred dollars for bull it would have
broke his heart.
The naples must be putting out; see some
Down yonder where the clearing laps across the
Swamp cabbage grows beside the run; the green
is good to see,
But wheat's the color, after all, that cheers and
'hyens me.
They think have an easy time, no need to worry
now
Sit in the porch all day and watch them NOW, and
sow, and plough
Sleep in the summer in the shade, in winter in the
sun
I'd rather do the thing myself, and know just
Wsll-I suppose I'm old, and yet tits not so long
When Reuben spread the swarth to dry, and Jesse
learned to NOV,
And William raked, and Israel hoed, and Joseph
But such man as was then my boys will never
bel
Idon't mind Williams hankering for lectures
and for books;
He never had farming knack-y you'd see it in his
looks; .s..
But handsome is that handsome does, and he is
'Twould ease my mind if could say the same of
Jesse, too.
There's one black sheep in every flock, so tn ere
But was wrong that second time his bond to
undersign;
It's less than what his share will be-but there's
In ten years more might have had two thousand
to invest
There's no use thinking of it now. and yet it
makes me sore
The way I've shaved and saved, 1 ought to count
little more.
] never lost foot of land, and that's comfort,
- sure,
And if they do not call me rich, they cannot call
me poor.
Well, well ten thousand times I've thought the
things I'm thinking now;
I've thought them in the harvest-feld and in the
clover-m0w;
And sometimes get tired of them, and wish I'd
Z something new rN rt
But this is ali I've seen and known so what's q
man to do?
'Tis like my time is nearly out, of that I'm not
afraid; -
never cheated any man, AID all my debts are
paid.
They cali 1t rest that we shall have, but work
would do no harm;
There can't be rivers there and fields without
- come sort o. farm Hearth and Home