Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-07-14
THE BREAKING TEAM.
Tread by Prof. 8. S. RoCKwooD, at he Meeting
of the Old Settlers Association of Walworth
County. at Whitewater June %, 1880

Vi Inc Otu CGktIeTE AcEOORaeAOA Va w 0AVoAsh
County, at Whitewater, June %, 1880
Early morn in the month of June,
Low in the west The lingering moon,
Far In the east the newborn day
Mount aud ride. for miles away
did In the woods and thickets deep
Lies the mighty team asleep.
Can you win at a single stroke,
Bring them home an d under the YoKeF
Ere you reach their secfet bower,
Use as you may your utmost power,
Spent and gone fs the morning hour.
Threading the limitless realms that run
Far away 10 the rising sun,
Lazily breakfasting on their way,
Farther and farther they go asray.
Small are the traces left behind
Keen are the eyes that search aud find.
here arr the smoothed out plats that tell
Where they lay and slept so well,-
There In The grass trail runs through
Made by he feet Il at brushed the dew;
Tracks that lead to the waters edge,
Through the ooze, or across ledge,
Made last night, or an hour ago.
All are things you must surely know.
Subtle knowledge of their simple wants,
Woodlands craft in their forest haunts,
PIowmans skill 10 know the mind
Oxen share with our human kind
These are the powers that seal your fate,
Bring you home or early, or late
Help you TO b. file the lazy shirk
Skulking away from his daily work.
Help you to find the cunning scamp
Author and fnlsher of many a tramp
Hidden away in the underbrush,
Hone of the robin. Jay and thrush
These are the gifts that let you read
Rightly the signs none other heed.
Help you to find and follow trail,
Win, in word, where others fail:
So shall you gather from grove and stream,
Every OK of the breaking-team.
Clashing their horns on the glittering line,
File by file in the bright sunshine,
Tell them off as they stand wait,
Ready to start al their tortoise gait
Star and Diamond lead the van,
Next In order Bob and Dan,
Stub and Twi st, and Black and Tan
so the list OF the worthless ran;
Broad and Brindle standing firm
Calmly see the lght-weights squirm,
Hardly know that in their rears
Pull and haul the new-yOked steers,
Tom snd Jerry, Spot and White;
Then the fmmortals. Buck and Bright.
Paint their names in lines OF light
Blazing down the arch of time
Builded here in my homely rhyme.
L silly there In their brawDy prime
Stand the mightiest yokes, and there
Feel tae blows on the ringing share
Strengthening he battered edge with care,
Bill and Charlie, Jack and Jim;-
Young or old, or stout or slim,
Steers or oxen, full of vim,
These are the names OF the ten-yoke team
Truly told from lead to beam;' =
Not SO grand as old Homer's ships,
Yet they Were dear to a pioneers lips.
Homely sounds and strange to the ear
Filled with the neigh of the steeds of fear
Steam-fed chargers trained to the rail
Crossing the plains that never fail;
Doomed, 'tts true, to be forgot,
Sharers here of our common lot
Still the men who have swung whiI
Balanced yoke on stalwart hip,
Held in their youth breaking pillow,
Hold them dearer than ever now.
Ready at last. At the word of command.
Ten in the furrow and ten on the land
Twisting the kinks from the tightening chain
Murmuring under tbs mighty strain
Slowly the tough green earth is turned,
Upward and out from the mould-board
spurned.
What goes down with the rolling sod?
Not the least of the works of God;
Belts OF flowers divinely blown,
FurlOng stretches of every tone,
Clustered, scattered. heaped, or strown,-
Looseneo, lifted, curved and curled
Gracefully down from the bright June world
Buried beneath that fatal band
Slowly shorn from the narrowing land
Eagerly watching this grand parade,
Children ran in the burrows made,
Heard the crack of the whip and shout
urning the rafting pairs about,
Followed the steadily falling sod,
Bare feet marking its every rod;
Forward til ey went with their peals of miItt
Making gladder the glad green earth,
over the hill and out of sight
Slowly into the morning light.
Thus have they passed from the fields away
Into the types of that earlier day.
Nothing Is left TO the pioneer now
Only the memory of team and plow,-
Only the tale of the pillow and team
Shaped in the vision OF poets dream.