Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-10-23
OLD BACHELOR JOHN.
BY SAUL POTTS.

That ye'd really ike to hear me tell the story Of
And why I'm gettin' old and grizzled, N never
Wal-there amt much story to it, and don't pre-
tend 10 be
No more vi nero than what you'd "a bin, If you'd
bin me.
Folks that's married sometimes has way OF look
in with contempt
On them that's single, though perhaps they never
so much az dreamnt
That there might be good reasons for their Ivin as
seems to me hash judgment-and kind " on
feelin too.
hey sometimes call me Grabbed, and dried up,
cross OLD Dacn.
It kind " CRATES upon me, like creakin', rusty
latch
For it makes me think of younger, happier days
that have seen:
Mi things hadn't bin just they was, what /,
too, might a bin.
It's nigh on i've and thirty year since first came
ont West;
thought I'd strhe out for myself, it seemed TO me
the BEST
Nv Young heart was chock- full o. hope, and there
was one for whom
Icould have cut my pathway through the thickest
backwoods' gloom.
hands was full;
So me m my youngest brother thought we'd give
their DOaJ u pull.
! mean by that we felt that II we hghtened up
their load
Life wouldn't seem 10 them, perhaps, such dread
full uphill road.
never had much schoolin', as you'll know to hear
me talk;
"cheese from chalk
Book arnin' amt my strong pint, but Of pioneer
in ways
I've seen as much as most olks has, that's gon'
nowadays.
The first time come West, come through York
State, by canal
The railroad wasn't runin' yet and tallygraphs
Wal.
# you'd told folks that in thirty years newsd be
sent on wires
Clean round the airth. they'd called We o. the
biggest kind O liars.
IS said, we pioneered along-a good deal o. the
way
The country was settlin' up, even at that early
We stopped first in Ohio then we looked at Michi-
gan,
But we thought that goin' further West would be
better plan.
SO we entered" land al COMMENT price, in South
ern lnoy.
Ny brothers was admin mine-he's dead, m his
Oldest boy
Is married, carries Oh the farm, m lives up on the
And II carry mine on too-but IN unmarried
still.
IS said before, left behind me when come out
West,
One whom loved, God knows how much and She
too, loved ME best.
w agreed that I'd go back and take her for my
IN year or TWO, or soons fairly got start in
life
used to hear from Hetty pretty often. She could
write
A frstrate kind o. letter, better'n mine mighty
sight.
Mine was always blotched and bungled, but for all
that Hetty knew
Every word inside come from my heart and that to
her was true.
1t took month or 50 for letters to reach us in
And when mails went by stage coach it did seem
dre'dful ways;
But it's Time makes distance seem so long, even in
these days of steam:
And to them that's separated wide, it g about's it
used TO SEEM
Wal, I'd got some forty acres cleared-I built q
Lighthouse TOO,
And got Things fixed as comftable IS could where
all was new sIa
N calculated the next spring to go back to Var
mont.
And marry Hetty, n bring her home; our minds
That winter was pretty hard one, all the country
through:
SIGH one, for heavy SHOWS and thaws,I think
never knew.
Our mails was all behind hand, for the Dads was
powerful bad:
And single line from Hetty was tb' only word
had.
1t was written weeks before, and in shaky kind
o. hand,
As il she'd had a very heavy fit o. sickness, and
All it said was, John, dear, I'm not WELL Could
you come homer
WhcnI read IT was IS if a clap o. thunder struck
me dumb.
"Could conner I'd like to see the airthly power
could hold me back
1t did MT take me very long my clothes and traps
Travelled night and day, fast as stagin' would
And ten days was a quicker trip than two or three
Is now.
And at the end Of ten long days reached my
native town,
One bright spring afternoon, just as the sun was
going down;
hurried past folks that knew, and them that
knew me well,
When all to once't herd the toll Of the solemn
"passin' bell"
N knew that somebody was dead-what? No!
1t could not be
Ny Hettyl that was just her age, the bell struck
twenty-three;
hurried faster almost run, till reached the old
brown gate,
m then knew, without bein' told that I'd come
home too latei
IN then there come blackness, and can't re-
But they say for days and weeks lay, just hovern
at deaths door.
Till finally, by Gods help, and by nursin Of the
best,
lg0t W on my feet again. and started back out
And now We We heered my story, n why never
had no wife,
Do ye wonder any longer that live this kind o.
life?
Do ye wonder that my love went out like a candle
49,, in the wind
When Hetty died' N livin' SO d. ye say ye think
I've sinned,
fsrhaps 7 may be so-wal-may God forgive me II
! have.
But my heart for thirty years has laid with Hetty
In ner grave:
And carry on my farm alone, and I'm waitin' for
the day
When the good Lord win call me, m II be ready
to obey.
--Christian Union.
AN old English farmer, debating his
will to lawyer, said: II give and be-
9ueath to my wife the sum of f100 year.
Is that writ down, master?" EYES," said
a &I,,. 4, L.. 81 -