Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-14
GOING TO SPELLING SCHOOL.
BY BENJ. 2. TAYLOR.

BY BENZ. F. TAYLOR.
The broad of a siivery noon!
And the world lies under the moon,
Under the moon and the snow;
The moon comes out from under cloud
And shines the world below.
The snow, cold, white as a linen shroud,
Put on but an hour ago,
Is pearly web with silver thread
Robe for bridal and not for the dead.
The river is silent as light,
The road is a ribbon of white,
Ribbon of silk from Japan
Its borders rich with satin and shine
Betray where the seigh-shoes ran,
That iron the snow to fabric line,
Edged like a lady's fan.
All, the night is fair as marble GIRL
Dusty with stars and the mother OF pearl.
The school-house is red and aloof
And rolls from It's messy old roof
Columns of glorifed gloom,
As if there grew from the chimney rude
Al smoke-tree clad in its bloom
A phGnix fair of the burning wood,
just sprung from the summer room,
With that only trace of an earthly faint,
Picture as white as tie soul of a santl
A twanging and trilling of wiresl
Are angels attuning their Tyres,
Tuning with negligent hand?
Harkl chimes of bells from over the hills
Dance merrily through the land
The tnklng troll of a hundred rills,
Cymbals of brass from bandit
IT'S the ringing strings of the belsi bronze
A spell is abroad and a song
The spoilers and singers along
Wizards and witches by pairs.
In cutters snug are the Adams and Ewes,
Eden's own children and heirsi
Bells in the wool, in lieu of the leaves,
And bells that the echo wears
1t is ring, ring ring, to the swinging gait,
Then the teams break trot for the hour is late,
At ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, gallOping rate
Now over the ridges they ride,
And down through the valley they glide,
And bring up the school house door,
With bundled girls in the quilted hood,
And its cdging of down, as of yOre.
Their hearts are as sweet as the cedar wood,
Their gowns without gusset or gore,
And Vandykes with peak before,
And their hair is CLOSED down like a blackbird'
And their shoes are laced up, and with leathe
They laugh aud they leap to the ground,
In wooden, ali mittened and goWned,
Lit up with ribbon blue,
With q breath of cloves or of sasSafras,
Faces like Ruth's and as true
As ever smiled in a lOOking-glass,
And checks with the roses through
All look like flowers that are newly blown,
In the zoneless grace Of their : London brown
Not a charm in bonds, nor a beauty laced,
Cestus of Venus would girdle the waist.
A chorusing crew comes last
In the Family Ark of the past,
Packing il full, and in pairs
The rude old sleigh, so roomy and red,
All strewn with straw, like Povertys bed,
Mennial lambs in their lairs
Like an emigrant ship is the numbering craft,
Crowded and laden both forward and aft,
With wooden heart surrounding the stern,
Where the teams:ers of old gave the reins turn.
All, the hearts that throbbed with their youthful
blood
Were as free from care as the sculptured wood!
oh, Covenant Ark of the snow,
Freighted for church at the dOOrl
Two, side by side, the sheep-skin seat,
Are bound for Canaan's shore;
The square footstOve is under their feet,
buffalo robe before:
In the two flag chairs that are side by side
Are the gray old man and his silver bride.
Then the boys and girls in their Sunday clothes.
And the rank slopes down as it farther goes,
To three in a row, for the last are least,
Like the sparks of stars in the early Easti
All, the old red sleigh, be it ever blest!
1t has borne the dead TO their silent rest
The bearers, by twos, as they rode abreast
Has carried the brides, their bedding and things,
When the girls were queens and the bridegroom
kings,
To the splay foot jog of the olden time,
And the clang, cang, clang of the sleigh-bells
chime.
All necklace of melody old,
With apples and walnurs of gold
That danced TO the horses feetl
The mother bell in the middle hung,
As big " Golden Sweet"
Then small each way till the string was strung
And two filbert bells did meet
And two rhyming hearts did beat.
All, the string is dumb and green with rust
As the dimpled graves of the maidens dustl
From THE District School, IN ScFibHeT'S JC