The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-07-01
GRANDMOTHER GRUMBLE ON THE
FARM.
By HEnE II ANeEL1 eooDw1


We are back on the farm where my childhood was
spent.
Our riches took wings it is well that they went.
We are happy princes and busy as bees;
At least, all but JONAS wife. She sits at her ease
With novels, bemoaning her happier days,
While the country folks laugh at her nelady ways.
She keeps canary and lap-dog to cheer
Her seR-inposed ideness. Is it not queer
How women will fold their white hands m
despair
At the dreadful dilemma of i" nothing to qcear"
And can't be convinced of what plainly is true,
That the worst Of all curses is nothing to do;
Or that he who found mischief for idle hands when
The good DR.. Watts lived is still among men.
But John has grown young He said only last
night
He would not take up the old cares if he might
And from my heart do rejoice with my son.
In the good this reverse to the children has done
Gustavus and Lincoln work hard on the farm
And study between whites. Twill do them no
If they work their own passage to college and
through
They say it's the way that the greatest men do.
Ana the little ones, healthy and happy and brown,
You could not persuade them to go back to town.
All outdoors" for play-room if pleasant the day:
If stormy, the garnet and harmful of hay.
The best of the whole is, we do our own work:
No servants to waste things and pilfer and shfrk,
And threaten to leave if you think it not right
To ask that first cousin" to tea every night.
Though they would do better, fancy, for one,
If the mistress herself knew how work should be
done.
Of course, we live simply; but even Johns wife
Surprised into frankness, for once in her life,
Said: % AS far as the food goes'-wth her no small
distance
e I think this the happiest mode of existence"
But we're sso out of society" she SAYS No doubt
If the literal truth, It's a sorrowful I" out"
But what is society? Three-minute calls
On people just like you, late suppers and balls
box at the OPERA carriage at will,
And no limit set to the milliners bill?
I'd sooner be shut iIl room with a cat,
Or only q -b1sh than GOT Po1oh all at
Thank God we're not out of society yet;
Every soul that Christ died for belongs TO g our
set."
To follow His fashions we earnestly try,
And we shall be like Him il the sweet by and by.''
But we're no longer "upper ten." This fact, as
yet
Young Croesus McIlYan appears to forget,
For he calls ON Eugene about every day.
He is summering near here his friends at Cape
May.
He wanted to marry next fall, or before,
And tried to )ax her to teach music more.
But the scales have dropped off from my grano
daughters eyes,
And she teaches her lover lessen more wise,
Declaring he never shall call her his wife
Till he ceases to lead such indolent life.
His riches may fly; so himself he must prove
Both able and willing to work for her love.
Well, them" said McIlvan, g. I'll follow my bent,
And learn to build houses with Barlow & Dent"
His friends can do nothing but talk about him,
And wonder what made him take up such a whim.
g Architecture always his hobby" they say;
6 But it might be pursued in genteel way"
Replies the apprentice: I" A truce to your pride
Like Jacob, the chosen, work for a bride
One wise as the wise mans ideal of old,
Her price above rub1es, outshining my gold"
Independent.