Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1871-06-30
gslerten puftry.
BETSEY DESTROYS THE PAPER
Sequel to "Betsey and Are Out"

BETSEY DESTROYS THE PAPER.
Sequel to "Betsey and I Are OUT
BY THE REV. PETROLEUM v. Massey.
I've brought back the paper, lawyer, and fetch
ed the parson here,
To see that things are regular, settled up fair
and clear;
For I've been talking with Caleb, and Caleb
has talked with me,
And the mount of it is we're minded to try
once more to agree.
to say,
(Caleb is stalking pea-vines and couldn't come
to-day,)
Just to tell you and parson, how that we We
chang'd our mind;
So I'll tear up the paper, lawyer, you see it
wasn't signed.
And now if parson is ready, I'll walk with him
I want to thank him for something twas kind
of him to come.
He's showed the christian spirit, stood by us
flrm and true;.
We mightn't have changed our mind. squire,
if he'd been a lawyer too.
There! How good the sun feels, and the grass
and blowin' trees;
Something about them lawyers makes me feel
fit to freeze.
I wasn't bound to state particulars to that
man.
But it's right you should know, parson, about
our change of plan.
We'd been some days a-waverin' little, Caleb
and me,
And wished the hateful papers at the bottom ot
the sea;
But guess twas the prayer last evening, and
the few words you said,
That thawed the ice between us, and brought
things to q head.
You see when we came to division, there was
things that wouldn't divide;
There was our twelve year-old baby, she could
MT be satisfied
To go with one or the other, but just kept
whimpering low,
"Tll stay with papa and mamma, and where
they go I'll CO."
Then there was grandsire's Bible-he died on
our wedding day;
We couldn't halve the old Bible, and should il
60 or stay2
The sheets that were Caleb's mothers her sam,
pier on the wall,
With the sweet old names worked in-Try-
phens, and Eunice, and Paul.
1t began to be hard then, parson, but it grew
harder still, -e- -se-.----.zz---@------ -
TaIkin' of Caleb established down at McHen-
rysville;
Three dollars q week 'twould cost him; no
mendin' nor sort of care.
And board at the Widow Meacham's a woman
that wears false hair.
Still we went on a-talkin'; agreed to knit
some socks,
And make dozen striped shirts, and pair of
wa mus frocks;
And he was to cut doorway from the kitchen
to the shed
"Save you climbing steps much, in frosty
weather." he said.
He brought me the pen at last; felt asinkin',
and he
Looked as he did with the agur, in the Spring
of sixty-three.
Twas then you dropped in, parson; 'twasn't t
much that was said,
Little children, love one another" but the
thing was killed stone dead.
should like to make confession; not that L m
going to say
The fault was all on my side, that never was
my way.
But it may be true that women-tho how tbs
I can't see-
Are little more aggravatin' than men know
how to be.
Then, parson, the neighbors' meddlin'-it was
mt pourin' oil;
And the church a-laborin' with us, twas worse
than wasted toll;
And I've thought, and so has Caleb, though
maybe we are wrong,
If they'd kept to their own business, we should
have got along.
There was Deacon Amos Purdy, good man as
we know,
But hadn't gift of laborin' except with the
scythe and hoe;
Then load came over in peach time from the
Wilbur neighborhood
"Season Of Prayer they called it; didn't do
an atom of coed.
I'll tell you about the heifer-one of the kind
est and best
That brother Ephraim gave me, the Fall he
moved out West;
Pm free to own it riled me that Caleb should
think and say
She died of convulsions-a COW that MIXED
four gallons day.
But needn't have spoke. of turnips, reedn't
have been so cross,
And said hard things, and limited as if twas
all my loss
And I IL take it all back parson; that fire shan't
ever break out.
Though the cow was choked with turnip, !
never had doubt
Then there are p'ints Of doctrine, and views OF
future state,
Pm willing to stop discussin'; we can both af-
ford to watt
'Twont bring the millennium sooner, disputin'
about when it's due,
Although feel an assurance that mines the
scriptural view.
But the blessedest truth of the Bible, I've learn
ed to think, don't lie
In the texts we hunt with candle to prove
our doctrines by,
But them that come to US in sorrow, and when
we're on our knees;
So, if Caleb won't argue on free-will, + II leave
alone the DEGREES.
One notion of Caleb's, parson, seems rather
misty and dim;
wish, if it comes convenient, you'd change a
word with him.
1t don't quite stand to reason, and for gospel
it isn't clear,
That folks love better in heaven for having
Hal A