Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-06-28
A RHYME OF THE RAIN.
BY RossIrKR JOHNSON.

How IL drives beneath the doorsl
How it soaks the passer's feet!
How II rattles on the shutter!
How 1t rumples up the lawn!
how twill sigh, and moan, and mutter,
From darkness until dawnl-
Making human life burden,
Making joy fiimsy vile,
Making bondage seem guerdon
In the rainless fields of Egypt, by the clever rive
Nile.
Yet how pleasantly the rain,
. With its delicate refrain,
May sing away the sultriness of summer day OF
Set the dropping grass a-springing,
,,,, And the robins throat a-ringlng,
Fill the meadow-lands wi h verdure, and the hills
with glistening light!
Or in April, fckle-hearted,
Ere the chill has quite departed,
That the frosts, and the SHOWS, and the bowling
winds have brought,
When all the signs of gladness
lake somber tlnge of sadness,
For days and deeds that come no more, and
dreams that fell to naught!
Then, in half f-unwelcome leisure,
Ills sort of solemn pleasure
To sit beside the ingle,
Or to lie beneath the shingle,
And listen to the patter of the rain, rain, rain,
To the drip, drip, drip,
On the roof, and the shutter, and the pane, pane,
pane.
But whether night or daytime,
In harvest-time or play-time,
And whether pour or patter,
The early rain or latter
Reigns over human purpose, and plays with hu-
Sets mighty armies shouting,
Sends little Cupid pouting,
Turns trusting into doubling,
And triumph into tears.
OIL sadly remember
One treacheroNs September,
When the autumn equinoctial came week or 80
had started, with a cousin,
For the church, among dozen
Maids and matrons who were airing
u The "fall styles" I" and gayiy wearing
The very newest, sweetest things in bonnets
meath the moon,
And midway of the journey,
Like thousand knights in tourney,
The leveled lances of the ram drove furious at
And the ''faI styles fell and ,wilted,
On the danes so proudly killed,
And by sudden transformation worse than worst
became the best.
Though now am sere and yellow,
was then valiant fellow,
And esteemed it more joy TO serve the ladies
than to live.
Imagine, then, my feelings,
ws.i Mid the shrinkings and the squealings,
When my waterproof umbrella proved
sieve, sieve, sieve!
When my shiny new umbrella proved sieve!
What q sorry lot of mortals
Sat within the sacred portals,
In their mermaid millinery looking sad, sad,
sadl
NWHthing WSidR dry except the % sermpni pi.r,,on
And the streams which, saith the Scripture, do
make glad, glad, glad!
So the preacher praised the waters
To those mothers, wives, and daughters,
Every dripping, draggled one of whom was mad,
mad, mad!
And my bright and handsome cousin,
Sweetest girl among the dozen,
Or among dozen dozen you might meet along
Then a hopeful, sprightly lassie,
n.,Ss NOW, fear, little Pcssee, o ,o. ~.,uu
Dates the ruin of her chances from that rainy
She had spent her last round dollar
u Forthe bonnet, gloves, and collar,
That should have proved effective on the smart
But he rode home in the carriage
OF her rival, and their marriage
Was solemnized (my cousins word) in less than
But gladly remember H.t
One crimson-hued September,
When we strayed along the hedges and within the
gorgeous void;
merry autumn party
Of men and maidens hearty,
Rejoicing in the foliage Of scarlet and of gold;
And ere we thought of turning,
Or saw sign of warning,
We heard upon the fallen leaves the footsteps OF
the rain. .4
Away went rules conventional!
And /, with haste Intentional,
Just clapped my good old broad-brim on the head
of Annie Blaine. rH.. .#.
That extemporized umbrella
Threw cold water on q fellow
Who was counting, in a lazy sort OF way, Miss
Annie Blaine;
While ii made me quite gallant,
And fine young man of talent,
In the eyes and estimation of the beauteous Annie
Blaine.
In the dreamy summer haze
Of my ar-off boyish days,
had chased the Turing butterfly across the grassy
plain;
But ne er threw my hat
r,, O'er prize so fair as that
When it sheltered, caught, and gave me, the
lovely Annie Blaine.
And Pye blessed that gentle rain
= Again and yet again,
For the flowers it set blooming in my life, life,
life;
For the crimson and the gold
W. That aderr the little fold
"nere find an autumn shelter with my wife,
wife, wife.
-AppIetons' Journal.