The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-06-16
The Golden Wedding,


Wake up. wifel-the black cloak of Night be
gins to fade
And far in the east the Morning his kitcher
fire has made;
And he is heating red-hot his stove of iron
gray,
And stars are winking and blinking before tn,
light O. day.
Mind you what 1 was doin', Just fifty years
agone?-
Brushin' my Sunday raiment, an putin my
best looks on;
Clothin' myself in courage, so none my fright
could see;
An my coward heart within, the while was
pounding to get free.
Ten mile wood an bramble, an three mile field
an dew,
In the cold smile of morning 1 walked tc
marry you;
No horse had but my wishes-no pilot but a
slar;
But my boyish heart it fancied it heard you
from afar.
80 through the woods 1 hurried, an through
the grass an dew,
An little 1 thought o. tiring, the whole of my
journey through;
Things meier before nor after do so man re-
joice,
As on the day he marries the woman of his
choice.
And then our country wedding -brimful o
grief an glee,
With every one a-pettin' an jokin' you an me;
The good cheer went and came, wife, as it some
times has done
When clouds have chased each other across the
summer sun.
There was your good old father, dressed up in
weddn' shape,
With all the homespun inery that he could
rake an scrape;
And your dear-hearted mother the sunlight of
whose smile
shone through the showers of tear-drops that
stormed her face the while;
Also your sisters an brothers, who hardly
seemed to know
How they could scare up courage to let their
sister go;
An cousins an school-house comrades, dressed
up in meetin' trim,
With one of them a-sulkin' because it wasn't
him;
An there was the good old parson, his neck all
dressed in white,
bunch o. texts in his left eye, hymn-book in
his right;
An the parsons virgin daughter, plain and Sc
v~rely pure,
Who hoped we should be happy, but wasn't ex.
actly sure.
And there was the victuals, seasoned with kind
regards an love,
And holly wreaths with breastpins of rubes
up above;
An there was my heart a-wonderin' as how such
things could be,
An there was the world before u.s. an there
was you and me.
Wake up wife that gold bird, the sun, has
come in sight
And on a tree-top perches to take his daily
flight.
He is not old and feeble, an he will sail away
As he has done so often since fifty years to-day.
You know there's company coming-our daugh
ters an our sons
There's John, and James, and Lucy, an all
their little ones;
And Jennie, she will be here, who in her grave
doth lie
Provided company ever can come from out
the sky;
And Sam-I am not certain as he will come,
not;
They say he is black sheep-the widest of
the lot.
Before a sons dishonor, fathers loves stands
dumb;
But still, somehow or other, hope that Sam
will come;
The tree bends down its branches to its chill
drcn from above
The son is lord of the father, and rules him
with his love-
And he will e'er be longed for, though far they
be apart,
For the drop of blood he carries that came
from the fathers heart
Wake you, wife the loud sun has reused the
sweet daylight,
And she has dressed herself up in red and yell
low and white;
She has dressed herself for us, wife-for our
weddin' dHy once more
And my soul to-day is younger than ever it was
before.
VA Carleton. in Hdrper's Weekly