Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-04-03
NO. so.
JANE REED.
A PENNSYLVANIA BALLAD,

A PENNSYLVANIA BALLAD.
"If could forget" she said, "forget and begin
again
We see so dull at the time, and, looking tack, SO
plain:
There's quiet that's worse, think, than many
aspoken strife,
| whole Of a life->
There's John, forevef The same. so steady, sober,
and mild;
child: y
Perhaps my ways are harsh, but if he would seem
to care,
There'd be fewer swallowed words aud lighter
load to bear.
"Here, Cherry l-she's found me out, the calf
raised in the spring,
And likely heifer she's grown, the foolish, sof.
eyed thing
Just the even color like, without a daPple or
speck,-
on your neck
"The poor dumb beast she is, she never can know
nor tell,
And it seems to do me good, the very shame of tie
spell:
So old a woman and hard and Joel old q
man.
But the thoughts Of the old go on as the thoughts
Of the young begani
"Its guessing that wastes the heart, far worse
than the surest fate:
If knew he had thought of me, / could quietly
work and wait;
And then when either, at last, on a bed of death
should lie,
Why, one might speak the truth, and the other
hear and die"
She leaned on the heifer's neck: the dry leaves
fell from the boughs,
And over the sweet late grass of the me adow
strayed the cows:
The golden dodder meshed the cardinal ,wer by
the rili;
There was autumn haze in the air, and sunlight
low on the hill
'Ive somehow missed my time,' she said to her.
self. and sighed
"What girls are free to hope, q steady woman must
hide,
But the need outstays the chance: 1t makes me
cry and laugh,
To think that the only thing can talk to now is q
call"
A step came down from the hill she did not turn,
or disc;
There was something in her heat that saw without
the eyes.
She heard the foot delay, as doubling to stay or
go;
"Is the heifer for sale ?" he said. She sternly
answered, "Nop
She lifted her head as she spake; their eyes mo-
ment met,
And her heart repeated the words, "If could
only forgetl"
He turned a little away, but her lowered eyes
could see
His hand, as he picked the bank from the trunk
of a hickory tree.
"Why can't we be friendly, Jane." his words
came, strange and slow;
"You seem to bear me a grudge, so long, and so
long agol
You were gay and free with the rest but always SO
shy of me,
That, before my freedom came. saw that it
couldn't be-"
"Joelp was all she cried, as their glances met
again,
And sudden rose efac cd her pallor of age and
pain.
He picked at the hickory bark "Irs curious
thing to say;
But I'm lonely since Phebe died and the girls are
married away.
"Thaps why these thoughts come back: Pm a
little too old for pride
And never could understand how love should be
all one side:
II would answer itself, l thought, and time would
show me how;
But it didn't come so then, and it doesn't seem so
nowlo
"Joel. it came so, then "-and her voice was thick
with tears;
years."
He snapped the ribbon of bark; he turned from
the hickory.tree:
thought of mel"
She looked, and feebly laughed "Its comfort to
know the truth,
Though the chance was thrown away in the blind
mistake of youth"
"And greater comfort, Jane,' he said, with
tender smile,
ITO find the chance you have lost, and keep it a
little while.'
She rose as he spake the words the petted heifsr
thrust
Her muzzle between the twain, with an animai's
strange mstrust;
But over the creatures neck he drew her to his
breast:
"a horse is never old but it pulls with another
bestp
"Irs enough to know, she said; "to remember not
forgetp
NAY, nay; for the rest of life we'l pay each 9TH
er's debit"
She had no will to resist SO kindly was she
drawn,
And she sadly said, at last, "But what will be.
come of John 2"
-[BArARD TAYLOR, in April Atlantic.
Masonic and Odd Fellows