The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1874-01-21
BREF HARFE's NEW POEM.
LUKE.
I'm the Colorado Park, 1879

? sSzWos's that yoaIe'readin' "a novel2 Anov'
el-well darn my skin!
Yo7 man gtown and bearded, and hisdne
such stuff ez tina. in
Stuff about gals and their sweethearts! No
wonder you're thin as G knife.
Look at me. clear two hundred-and never
e+rsresd one in my life.
That's my opinion o novels. And to theil
- lyin' round here.
'' They belonged to the Jedge's daughter-the
=: Jedge who come up last year
" On account Of his lungs and the mountains
snd the balsam O. pine and fir;
And his daughter-well, she read novels. and
that's what's the matter with her.
Yet che was sweet on the Jedge, and stuck
by him day and night,
Alone in the cabin up yer-till she grew like
ghost, all white.
She was only slip of 3 thing, ez light and
sz up and away
Ez rife smoke blown through the woods,
but she wasn't my kind-no way!
Speakin' O gals, dye mind that house ez you
" rize the hill;
4 mile and half from Whites, and jist
above Mattingly's mill?
You do? Well, now, thar,s g gal! What, you
saw her? 0, come now, thar, quit!
SShewas only bedevilin' you boys, for 10 me
! { she don't cotton one bit.
Now she,swhat call gatez pretty and
plump ez aqual;
Teeth ez white ez a hounds and they'd go
: through tenpenny nail; r
Eyes that can snap ike g cap. So she asked
to know "whar YVES hidF'
She did! o., it'sjest like her sass, for she's
peart ez Katy-did.
Bat what was talking of?-O! the Jedge
and his daughter-she read
ZEoTels the Whole day long, and reckon she
red them abed,
An6 sometimes she read them ont loud to
the Jedge on the porch where he sat,
And twas how HLord Augustus" said this,
and how, "Lady Blsrce" she said that.
But the sickest Of all that I heard was a
yarn that they read bout chap,
Misunderstanding" by name, and hunter
chock full o the greenness O sap;
And they asked me to hear, but says, "Miss
.a. Mabel, not any for me;
When likes kin sling my own lies. and
that chap and shouldn't agree
Yet somehow or other she vas alway sayin'
! brought her to mind
Otfolks about whom she had read, or suthin
belize Of that kind, T..
And thar wazls no end o. the names that
g.. she give me that summer up here,
'Robin Hood" Misunderstanding" "Rob
Roy,"-O, tell You, the critter was
queer.
;, And yet, ef she hadn't been spilled, she was
harmless enough in her way;
She could jabber IN French to her dad, and
--' they say tha. she knew how to play;
And she worked me that shotpouch up thar
=. $500 which the man doesn't live ez kin use,
And slippers-you see 'em down ye.-ez
'.+ would cradle an Injin's papoose. -
Yet along o. them novels, you see, she was
Eastin' and nopin' away, =.
And then she got shy with her tongue, and
az last had no:hin' to say;
And whenever happened around, her face
twas hid by book, 80
And it warn't until she left that she give me
p. ez much ez g look.
And this was the way it was. It was night
- when KEN up here
To say to 'em all Hgood-by," for reckoned
s:-'st to go for dear 50
Af"sun up" the day they eft. So shook
.'em all round by the hand, :,
'Cept Mabel, and she WAS sick, ez they give
me to understand.
But jist as passed the house the next morn
ing at dawn, some one.
Like little wsyer o mist, got up on the hill
with the sun
Miss Mabel it was, alone-all wrapped IN
.~.' mantle of lace
And stood there straight in the road, with
touch % the sun in her face.
And she looked me right in the eye-Td seen
suthin like it before
WhenI hunted wounded doe to the edge
Of Clear Lake shore,
And had my knee on its neck, and jist was
raisin' my knife
When it gave me look like that, and-WeH,
it got of with its life.
ave are going to-day" she said, "and I
thought would say good-oy
To YOU in your own house, Luke-these
woods and the bright blue sky!
You've always been kind to Us, Luke, and
papa has found you still
As good as the air be breathes, and whole
some as Laurel Tree Hill.
"And wen always think Of You, Luke, as
the thing we could not take away;
The bslssm that dwells in the woods, the
~~.'- rainbow that lives in the spray,
And yea'n sometimes think of me, Luke, as
yen know you once used to say,
rife smoke blown through the woods, q
moment, but never TO stay"
And then we shook hands. She turned, but
90. s-suddent she tottered and fell,
:, And caught her sharp by the waist ana
held her minit-well,
Twas only mint, you know that es eo'c
and ez white she lay
Ez snowflake here on my breast, and tnen
well she melted away
And ndwasgonexs* And thar are her books; ouf
: / says nosany for me,
Good euoughmay be for some' ont tnen ano
Imighn't agree.
They spilled decent gal ez might nave maze
g., some chap wife,
And look at mei-clar two hundred-ano
never read in my life!-
- Ia -Scribner's.
1t is easy in the, world to- i've
after the worlds opinion 1t is
3 EASY in solitude to live after your